Sula Literary Elements

African American Literature, Slice of Life

The novel is set in the Bottom, a neighborhood located in the hills above the valley town of Medallion, Ohio. When the novel opens, it’s 1919, one year after the end of World War I. The novel spans several decades, and illustrates the shifting status of African Americans in early to mid-20th century America.

Except for one poignant exception, Sula is narrated in the third person omniscient point of view by an unknown narrator. That exception is when Nel catches Jude and Sula having sex. At that point the point of view shifts to Nel, and she shares her feelings about the adultery in the first person.

Although it contains some graphic and tragic events, Sula’s tone doesn’t always mirror its somber content. For most of the novel, the narrator takes a breezy, gossipy tone, and even delves into a comedic tone at points. This results in a mostly light mood, even when tragedies like Chicken Little’s death and the mass death at the New River Road strike. Though these events tug at our emotions, the narrator’s tone makes us realize that these events are just another day in the life of the Bottom.

Part of Sula’s brilliance is the dualism of its characters, a dualism that’s exposed when thinking about which character is the protagonist, and which is the antagonist. From Nel’s perspective, Sula, once her best friend, becomes the antagonist of her life when she steals Jude away from her. However, in the eyes of Eva, the only person besides Nel and Sula who knows the truth about Chicken Little’s death, Nel is the antagonist who sat by and watched as Sula threw Chicken into the water. Looking at Sula, most of the Bottom considers her evil, and even go so far as to call her a devil. However, her love for Nel, her only friend, and her willingness to disregard the limitations society imposes on black women makes her a type of underdog hero that people like to root for.

There are several major conflicts in the novel. The construction of the New River Road tunnel is an overarching conflict that hums quietly in the background for most of the novel, until it comes to a grisly conclusion in the chapter "1941." Another conflict is the personal struggle between Nel and Sula, two childhood best friends driven apart by death, lust, betrayal, and misunderstanding. This conflict also ends tragically, with Sula dying before Nel realizes what they’ve both lost in their estrangement.

The climax of the novel is the mass death at the New River Road tunnel.

“It was the last as well as the first time she was ever to leave Medallion” (Morrison 44).

This quote foreshadows Nel’s character arc and fate in the novel. Like her mother, Nel becomes a fixture and leader in the Bottom, unlike Sula, who leaves for ten years and returns a pariah.

N/A.

“It was Hannah who found the bent spoon black from steady cooking” (Morrison 61).

When Plum returns from World War I, he is undeniably changed, but unlike Shadrack he doesn’t turn to alcohol to ease his demons. Plum’s vice is heroin, which this quote alludes to with the phrase “bent spoon black from steady cooking.”

See “Imagery” section of this ClassicNote.

“Hannah worried about him a little, but only a very little. For it soon became clear that he simply wanted a place to die privately but not quite alone” (Morrison 56).

This quote describes Tar Baby, who lives at Eva’s house, slowly drinking himself to death. The idea of dying privately yet somehow not alone seems paradoxical, but perhaps it means that Tar Baby wants to die amongst strangers and not his loved ones. That way his death wouldn’t be widely publicized, but he would still be in the company of others.

Parallels abound in Sula. Of course Sula and Nel are a prime example of parallelism, but their mothers Helene and Hannah are another. They exemplify the Madonna-whore dichotomy, with Helene being a conservative and contained woman, and Hannah being sexually promiscuous and free.

“Other than his mother, who sat in her shack with six younger sons working roots, he had never met an interesting woman in his life.”

Metonymy is when a thing refers to something else that it's closely associated with; but unlike synecdoche, the part does not have to refer to the whole. In the above quote, Morrison uses a black American colloquial metonym, where “working roots” refers to the traditional medicinal practices of rural Southern Black healers and doctors. “Roots” are a stand-in for nature or the earth, the source of the medicine.

“When Nel, an only child, sat on the steps of her back porch surrounded by the high silence of her mother’s incredibly orderly house, feeling the neatness pointing at her back…” (Morrison 67).

In this quote the neatness of Helene’s home is personified, gains sentience, and raises an accusing finger at a young Nel, as if any moment she may disturb the cleanliness and orderliness of her mother’s house.