"Sula" by Toni Morrison: what is the story "Sula" about?

Sula is set in the postbellum American South during a time when racial segregation continued to divide white and black populations. Even veterans of World War I like Shadrack and Plum are treated differently because of their skin color. Neither receives benefits after returning from war but are, rather, left to wallow and remember their trauma. Shadrack is even expelled prematurely from a veteran’s hospital to make room for other patients.

Morrison expressed concern when writing the book, which focused mainly on a black community for a largely white readership. To address this she created the Preface, which buffered the reader’s introduction to Shadrack’s internal crisis and shifted focus away from the pains inflicted on blacks by the war and discriminatory structural institutions.