Essay Preview: Sula
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In whatever way the term can be viewed, “evil” is used heavily and often and fulfills many different roles in Toni Morrisons Sula. This concept of “evil” can be looked at in numerous ways. It can be seen as the objectionable or diabolic behavior a person exhibits. It can be used to describe that person them self. Evil can be used to describe the presence of the devil, or the lack of God. It can also be a label given to something or someone by a community to give meaning or definition to themselves. Evil can even be used as an abstract term to label something that does not fit in with the norm, something that is in resistance to the standards of society. All these aspects of evil can be found within Toni Morrisons fictional town of the Bottom.
Morrison opens the book with a commentary about how the old neighborhood of the Bottom once was; how once upon a time it was a close, tight-knit community, but is now on its way to becoming a golf course. What held this community together and made it tight-knit was the “evil” that was prevalent within the town, particularly within Miss Sula Mae Peace. “[Shes the] Devil all right” is what the people would say about her (Morrison 117). Sula was indeed portrayed as evil by the community, but it was her incarnation of evil that defined and united the people of the Bottom, bringing them together against a common antagonist. When Sula dies, the community soon thereafter dies as well.
Sula was not always viewed as evil within the Bottom. Growing up with her best friend Nel, Sula is portrayed as an innocent child. Through various actions and symbolism however, there is a clear transition from the innocent child Sula once was to the depraved adult she becomes. The turning point that would mark the early stages of this forthcoming evil in Sula would be the drowning of Chicken Little. From then on, the sinister side of Sula is more and more revealed.
As a child, Sula was not the incarnation of evil that she grew up to be. The scene where she and Nel are in the grass playing with twigs exemplifies this. Both Sula and Nel take a twig and with their hands strip it down to a “smooth, creamy innocence.” (Morrison 58) They then dig a hole with their twigs until the twigs break, when they then throw each of their twigs into the hole and bury them in a “grave uprooted with grass.” (Morrison 59) They do not speak a word to each other while doing this. The twig in this scene is representative of Sulas life. At this point in her life, she, like the twig, is full of innocence. This innocence lasts until there is a “break” in the twig. The break in the twig and the “grave uprooted with grass” are both representative of the death of Chicken Little.
Chicken Littles drowning is the defining moment in Sulas character. This is her “break in the twig”; her loss of innocence. When Chicken Little is put into the grave during his funeral, again Sula and Nel do not speak a word to each other. What his death shows is one of the early instances of the inherent darker side of Sula seeping into the community. The choir has never needed to sing for a funeral until now; “the first time their voices had presided at a real-life event.” (Morrison 64) The choir singing their first song at a funeral shows that little by little the atmosphere in the town is changing, and is further testament of the turning point towards evil in the Bottom.
From this point on there are increasingly more events that show Sulas wicked side. The scene where Sulas mother, Hannah, burns to death is an example. When Hannah goes up in flames, Eva selflessly throws herself from out of a window to try to save her daughter. While Eva risks her life to save Hannahs, Sula stands and watches, not moving a muscle in an attempt to help her mother; she only stares. Eva never tells anyone, but inside she is convinced that “Sula had watched Hannah burn not because she was paralyzed, but because she was interested.” (Morrison 78) Later in the novel, it becomes clear that Sula actually enjoyed watching her mother burn.
There are more instances of an innate iniquity within Sula. When she leaves the Bottom for college and returns ten years later, the first thing she does is she goes straight to Evas house. Having not spoken to anyone from the Bottom in a decade, the foremost thing that Sula does is she gets into a war of words with her grandmother. After some bickering, Sula threatens to kill Eva in the same fashion that Eva killed Plum. Eva is the first of many people Sula terrifies when she returns to the Bottom. Eva then sleeps with her door locked but this does not last long as Sula soon commits her to a nursing home. Her action shocks the community and at this point it becomes cleat that they are beginning to see Sula as an “evil” within the community.
After Sula puts Eva in the nursing home comes her most diabolic act; she has sex with Nels husband, Jude. Sleeping with Jude is the culmination of the evil within Sula. She is able, seemingly without thinking about it, to toss aside her life-long friendship with Nel and sleep with her husband and then be able to have no moral regrets about it. Sula does this to fill a hole inside of her, to act upon some need she has. This need is her want to disregard social norms and restrictions. She does not care about the feelings of Nel, the feelings of Jude, nor the social views of marriage. In her selfishness she has sex with Jude, destroying relationships and a family, without thinking twice about it. Jude leaves his family, Nel and Sulas friendship is tossed out the window, yet there is no sign of remorse in Sula. From this scene, the town defines Sula as being nothing more than an egocentric with little to no regard for the feelings of others. What Sula is showing, however, is that she wants is to display her individualism and freedom by resisting the societal standards and by breaking through boundaries.
To the community of the Bottom, Sula now becomes the fullest embodiment of evil, almost a walking devil. If the instances when she put Eva in the nursing home and when she slept with Jude were not evidence enough, to add insult to injury, there were now also rumors in the town that she had slept with white men:
all minds were closed to her when that word was passed around. It made old women draw their lips together; made small children look away from her in shame; made young men fantasize elaborate torture for her – just to get the saliva back in their mouths when they say her. (Morrison 112-13)
The evil of prejudice comes into play here. The thought of “Sula underneath some white manit filled them with disgust.”