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Study guide · Novel

Sula

by Toni Morrison

A chapter-by-chapter study guide for Sula. Built around the rubric, not the cover — chapter summaries, characters, themes, symbols, and the key quotes worth pulling for an essay.

  • 11chapters
  • 10characters
  • 8themes
  • 6symbols
  • 10quotes
  • 10study tools

01·Chapter-by-chapter

A reader's guide, chapter by chapter.

11 chapters · click any chapter to expand its summary and analysis.

  1. Ch. 11919

    Summary

    The chapter begins in 1919, focusing on Shadrack, a young Black soldier who comes back to the Bottom—a hillside Black community in Medallion, Ohio—after enduring the brutalities of World War I. On the battlefield, Shadrack sees a fellow soldier's head explode mid-run, a traumatic sight that shatters his grip on reality. He wakes up in a military hospital, horrified by his own hands, which seem to swell and twist beyond his control. After spending time in an institution, he is released with little fanfare and returns to Medallion, broke and disoriented. He is briefly arrested for vagrancy after wandering through town in a daze. Once released, he moves into a small shack by the river and, in an act of radical self-determination, establishes National Suicide Day—January 3rd—a yearly event where he marches through the Bottom ringing a cowbell and carrying a hangman's noose, encouraging the community to face and address their fear of death. At first, the townspeople view him with fear and mockery, but gradually, his ritual becomes a regular part of community life, offering a sense of comfort.

    Analysis

    Morrison begins not with her title character, but with Shadrack, a choice that highlights the novel's focus on trauma, marginalization, and the fragile structures people create to cope with both. The war scenes are depicted in raw, jarring detail—Morrison disrupts syntax to reflect Shadrack's fractured mind, immersing the reader in a consciousness that no longer trusts its own perceptions. His fear of his own hands stands out as one of the novel's most striking images: the body transforms into something foreign, unreliable, a source of violence rather than a means of control.

    The creation of National Suicide Day represents Morrison's boldest artistic decision in this chapter. What might seem like madness is reframed as a harsh form of practicality—by scheduling death, Shadrack tries to contain it, making the uncontrollable more comprehensible. Morrison's tone here is neither condescending nor sarcastic; it remains observational, letting the peculiar logic of the ritual speak for itself. This restraint is a hallmark of the novel’s broader tendency to avoid editorializing.

    The Bottom is introduced with a complex irony: the community resides on the hills above Medallion because a white farmer deceived a freed slave into thinking the rocky high ground was the fertile "bottom of heaven." Morrison weaves this origin story subtly throughout the chapter, infusing its geography with a legacy of trickery and dispossession. Shadrack's isolated shack by the river positions him as even more displaced—on the fringes of a community that is itself marginalized.

    Key quotes

    • “He ran, bayonet fixed, deep in the great grief of soldiers.”

      Morrison describes Shadrack's battlefield charge in a single, elegiac sentence that compresses collective military trauma into one man's body.

    • “If one day a year were devoted to [death], everybody could get it out of the way and the rest of the year would be safe and free.”

      Shadrack articulates the internal logic of National Suicide Day, revealing the ritual's origins in a desperate, lucid desire for control over mortality.

    • “He had not known that he had a face until then.”

      Shadrack catches his reflection in a toilet bowl in the military hospital, and the moment of self-recognition briefly restores his sense of a coherent self.

  2. Ch. 21920

    Summary

    Set in 1920, this chapter focuses on Hannah Peace, Sula's mother, and her open, unabashed sexuality—a quality that shocks the women of the Bottom, even as their husbands secretly pursue her. Eva Peace, Hannah's mother and the novel's strong-willed matriarch, runs the household with the authority of someone who has thrived through sheer determination. The chapter offers a deeper look at the unconventional domestic world of the Peace women, a home that welcomes boarders, strays, and lovers without any fuss. Hannah's relationship with her daughter Sula is explored through a painful overheard exchange: Hannah tells a neighbor that she loves Sula but does not like her, a distinction that sticks with the child like a splinter. At the same time, Eva's past is revealed, particularly the mystery of how she lost her leg and the rumor that she deliberately placed it under a train to collect insurance money. The chapter also highlights the community's mixed feelings about the Peace women, who exist just beyond the moral framework that the Bottom uses to define itself.

    Analysis

    Morrison uses the 1920 chapter to explore the divide between love and approval, highlighting the harm this divide can cause to a perceptive child. Hannah's comment — that she loves but does not like Sula — serves as the chapter's quiet explosion, and Morrison deliberately keeps Sula's response mostly hidden, allowing the reader to sense the injury through its absence. This reflects Morrison's narrative restraint; she presents the most damaging moments indirectly.

    The chapter also acts as a communal biography. The gossip in the Bottom functions like a Greek chorus, both judging and preserving the legend of the Peace women. Eva's missing leg becomes a focal point for competing stories — each narrative shared by the community reveals more about their own fears regarding female agency and sacrifice than it does about Eva herself. Morrison doesn’t choose sides among the versions, maintaining the ambiguity as a structural element.

    Tonally, the chapter shifts between the warmly humorous (with Hannah's lovers coming and going in a routine manner) and the quietly painful (the rift between mother and daughter). Morrison’s writing is vivid and grounded, filled with smells, textures, and the distinct sounds of the house, which makes the emotional turmoil hit harder by contrast. The Peace household is presented not just as a backdrop but as a living entity with its own logic, one that both nurtures and harms, foreshadowing Sula's future struggles to create a traditional life.

    Key quotes

    • “I love Sula. I just don't like her.”

      Hannah says this casually to a neighbor, unaware Sula is within earshot — the line crystallizes the novel's central wound around maternal approval versus maternal love.

    • “Eva had married a man named BoyBoy and together they had three children… and then he left.”

      Morrison introduces Eva's backstory with blunt economy, the flatness of the syntax mirroring the flatness of abandonment and setting up the iron self-sufficiency Eva will build in response.

    • “The Peace women simply loved maleness, for its own sake.”

      The narrator characterizes the Peace women's relationship to men as appetite rather than need, distinguishing them sharply from the Bottom's conventional femininity.

  3. Ch. 31921

    Summary

    Set in 1921, this chapter focuses on the return of Eva Peace's son, Pearl (Plum), from World War I as a broken man, addicted to heroin. Eva observes her youngest child spiraling downward—retreating to his room, using drugs, and regressing into a state of helplessness that both horrifies and saddens her. The chapter reaches a shocking climax: in the dead of night, Eva enters Plum's room, cradles him with a raw form of maternal love, then douses him in kerosene and ignites him. She stands at the doorway, watching as he burns. Meanwhile, the Peace household carries on with its chaotic, matriarchal rhythm—Hannah's easy sensuality, the deweys' wild play, and the boarders' comings and goings all contextualizing Eva's act within the same moral universe as her fierce, uncontrollable love. Morrison captures both the horror and the tenderness side by side, refusing to let one negate the other.

    Analysis

    Morrison's craft in this chapter showcases tonal simultaneity—she denies the reader the ease of a single emotional register. Eva's burning of Plum is described in language that is both liturgical and visceral: the act is framed not as murder but as a grotesque extension of motherhood, a reclaiming of the birth canal in reverse. Morrison uses free indirect discourse to step into Eva's perspective without endorsing it, allowing the reader to grasp the internal logic of Eva's reasoning ("She would not let him die like that") while still feeling unsettled by it.

    The motif of fire, which will appear throughout the novel, is introduced here with full symbolic weight—destruction and purification, love and annihilation, all collapsed into a single image. Eva's one-leggedness, already established as a sign of her willingness to sacrifice her body for survival, resonates here: she has given flesh before; she gives it again, but this time it is her child's.

    The chapter also presents a subtle structural argument. The domestic noise surrounding the act—Hannah's laughter, the chaos of the deweys—refuses to isolate Eva's violence as an aberration. Morrison embeds the killing within the ordinary, insisting that the extraordinary and the mundane coexist. The prose rhythm slows and warms as Eva holds Plum, then accelerates into short, declarative sentences at the moment of ignition—a formal representation of the irreversible.

    Key quotes

    • “He wants to crawl back in my womb and I'm not going to let him.”

      Eva explains to Hannah why she killed Plum, articulating the act as a refusal to allow her son's regression to consume them both.

    • “She rolled a bit of newspaper into a tight stick about six inches long, lit it, and threw it onto the bed where the kerosene-soaked Plum lay in snug delight.”

      Morrison's narration of the killing itself, rendered in plain, almost domestic syntax that makes the horror more, not less, unbearable.

    • “He was all the time trying to get back at something. If I'd've kept him, he would have pulled me down with him.”

      Eva's second justification to Hannah, framing her act as self-preservation as much as mercy, and opening the novel's central question about the cost of survival.

  4. Ch. 41922

    Summary

    In the summer of 1922, Nel and Sula, two inseparable twelve-year-olds, explore the charged space between girlhood and adolescence in the Bottom. They spend their days in a leisurely, sensory drift—peeling fruit, observing boys, and testing the limits of their own bravery. The chapter takes a turn when a group of older boys, led by Chicken Little, starts to mock the girls. In a moment of spontaneous, almost joyful play, Sula swings the small boy around by his hands in wide arcs—but loses her grip. Chicken Little flies out over the river and disappears beneath the surface. Nel and Sula stand frozen on the bank, unable to fully comprehend the accident they've just witnessed. Sula rushes to Shadrack's shack, searching for something—though she can't quite name it—that feels like absolution or reassurance. Shadrack simply replies with "always," a word that holds no clear meaning for either of them. The girls keep this secret to themselves. The death is labeled an accident; the community mourns briefly before moving on. What lingers is the secret, a tangled knot of guilt and complicity that binds Nel and Sula closer than any spoken promise, while the river flows on, indifferent, carrying nothing back.

    Analysis

    Toni Morrison crafts this chapter as an exploration of the tragic aspects of everyday life, illustrating how irreversible damage can stem from innocent play. The joyful swinging of Chicken Little transforms into horror; Morrison intertwines delight and disaster, drawing the reader into this breathless experience. This choice not to moralize is a key aspect of the chapter's artistry: there's no clear villain, just movement and its consequences.

    The river serves as Morrison's most potent symbol in this chapter. It neither punishes nor saves; it simply exists. Its indifference reflects the Bottom's collective silence surrounding Black death—grief recognized, then absorbed, then forgotten. In contrast, Shadrack's solitary word, "always," offers a kind of dark comfort, presenting a promise of permanence that remains unclear: always what? Always observed? Always forgiven? Always guilty? Morrison leaves this word hanging, allowing it to resonate throughout the novel.

    The bond between Nel and Sula is deepened by what remains unspoken. Morrison recognizes that shared secrets create a form of intimacy that can be stronger than confession. The girls don’t weep together or confess; they simply know, and this knowing becomes the foundation of their friendship. The tonal shifts are sharp and intentional: the lyrical, almost pastoral beginning shifts to stark, declarative sentences after the drowning, with prose stripped of embellishment to reflect the numbness of shock. Morrison's syntax itself expresses grief.

    Key quotes

    • “Sula picked him up by his hands and swung him outward then around and around. His knickers ballooned and his shrieks of joy brought Nel running from the far side of the tree. When he slipped from her hands and sailed away out over the water they could not believe it.”

      Morrison renders the moment of Chicken Little's death mid-swing, collapsing joy and catastrophe into a single unbroken sentence so the reader, like the girls, has no time to brace.

    • “He said one word to her. 'Always,' he said.”

      Shadrack's cryptic response to Sula's unasked question at his door becomes the novel's most resonant and deliberately unresolved utterance, a word that promises permanence without specifying its content.

    • “The water closed peacefully over the turbulence of Chicken Little's body.”

      Morrison's use of 'peacefully' is the chapter's most unsettling tonal choice, the river's indifference rendered as a kind of obscene calm that refuses the gravity of a child's death.

  5. Ch. 51923

    Summary

    In the chapter set in 1923, Eva Peace faces the most heartbreaking choice of her life: she sets her son Plum on fire, a man hollowed out by heroin addiction after returning from World War I. As she watches him sleep in his drugged state, she pours kerosene over him and strikes a match. This act becomes clear only in hindsight, reconstructed by Hannah, who confronts her mother afterward. Eva explains, with an unsettling calm, that she couldn’t bear to see Plum retreat into her womb again, insisting she killed him out of love rather than allow him to live a diminished life. The chapter also reveals Hannah’s own interactions with men: she sleeps with her neighbors’ husbands without guilt or apology, viewing desire as a straightforward physical need. The Bottom community absorbs both events—Eva's act of mercy and Hannah's casual sexual encounters—with the same ambivalence it shows toward all the Peace women's excesses.

    Analysis

    Morrison uses 1923 to explore a complex aspect of motherhood, compelling the reader to grapple with two conflicting truths: Eva's action is both murder and an expression of love. The technique she employs is one of refusal—Morrison does not allow the prose to judge or absolve. Eva's explanation to Hannah comes in straightforward, declarative sentences that reflect her unwavering conviction. The simplicity of the language itself argues that she feels no moral ambiguity, only necessity.

    The motif of fire, which will re-emerge later in the story with Hannah's death, is presented here as a means of mercy rather than as an accident or act of malice. Morrison introduces a recurring image of flame as a symbol of transformation and release, while intentionally leaving its meaning ambiguous. Eva's recollection of Plum as an infant she once helped with a physical issue emphasizes the chilling connection between nurturing and destruction through the imagery of his later incineration.

    Hannah's sexuality provides a tonal balance: her straightforward desire for men offers an earthy normalcy that starkly contrasts with Eva's extremes. However, Morrison does not reduce Hannah to merely a comedic or rebellious figure; her poignant question to Eva—"Mama, did you ever love us?"—carries the weight of the entire chapter, reshaping every previous scene into a reflection on the true cost of maternal love and its form when stripped of sentimentality.

    Key quotes

    • “'I had to keep you out of my womb where you were crawling back. But I'll tell you what: I'll love you dead. I'll love you dead.'”

      Eva speaks to the sleeping, burning Plum, her words overheard by no one—Morrison renders them as Eva's interior justification for the act she is committing.

    • “'Mama, did you ever love us?'”

      Hannah poses the question to Eva after learning the truth about Plum's death, and the simplicity of the phrasing makes it the novel's most quietly devastating line to this point.

    • “She was not seductive; her sexuality was simply a fact, like breathing.”

      Morrison's narratorial aside on Hannah establishes her desire as biological rather than performative, undercutting any reading of her behavior as rebellion or transgression.

  6. Ch. 61927

    Summary

    Set in 1927, this chapter focuses on the growing distance between Nel and Sula after Sula returns to the Bottom. Nel has found her place in domestic life with Jude, while Sula circulates through the community with disconcerting freedom, taking lovers and leaving them without a second thought. The chapter takes a dramatic turn when Nel learns that Sula has been sleeping with Jude. Unable to face the situation, Jude leaves, abandoning Nel and their children completely. The betrayal unfolds not in dramatic fashion but through the quiet anguish of Nel sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth, searching for the grief within herself. Morrison captures Nel's internal struggle with keen insight: the pain is still raw and undefined, like a gray ball of fur lodged beneath her breastbone. Sula, on the other hand, shows no traditional remorse. This moment fractures their friendship—the emotional core of the book—and the community's view of Sula shifts to one of collective disdain.

    Analysis

    Morrison's craft in this chapter is marked by asymmetry. Nel and Sula have consistently represented opposing sides of the novel's moral framework, but 1927 brings that opposition to a head. The betrayal scene stands out for its lack of drama—Morrison skips the confrontation itself, allowing readers to see only the aftermath. This omission is intentional: the unseen act holds more significance than any dramatized argument could. The "gray ball of fur" that Nel experiences is one of Morrison's most precise images for grief-before-language, a physical metaphor that avoids sentimentality while emphasizing the body's understanding.

    Sula's refusal to express guilt is the chapter's most unsettling choice. Where the community—and the reader—anticipates remorse, Sula responds with her usual self-assuredness. Morrison does not allow the narrative to punish her through tone, even as the plot tightens around her. This tonal neutrality poses the novel's ethical challenge: we cannot find comfort in a clear villain.

    The chapter also continues the theme of watching and being watched. The Bottom's collective gaze, which has always monitored Sula, now solidifies. Her betrayal of Nel becomes part of a larger mythology surrounding her perceived danger. Morrison illustrates how personal betrayal and social scapegoating interact—Sula's individual action transforms into community property, a narrative the Bottom will reuse to rationalize its own boundaries.

    Key quotes

    • “Nel waited. Sula was going to explain it. She was going to say something that would make it all right.”

      Nel, in the immediate wake of discovering the affair, searches for a framework that might absorb the betrayal—Morrison exposing the mind's instinct to seek narrative repair before accepting loss.

    • “It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

      Morrison's closing image for Nel's grief, a circular, boundless sound that resists resolution and mirrors the novel's own refusal of tidy emotional closure.

    • “She had clung to Nel as the closest thing to both an other and a self, only to discover that she and Nel were not one and the same thing.”

      Morrison surfaces Sula's own interior logic, reframing the betrayal not as malice but as a catastrophic misreading of the boundary between self and friend.

  7. Ch. 71937

    Summary

    Set in 1937, this chapter depicts Sula's unexpected return to the Bottom after ten years away. She arrives without any explanation or apology, unsettling a community that has turned her absence into myth. Nel, who has settled into domestic life with Jude and their children, greets Sula with a blend of caution and rekindled closeness. The two women slip back into the familiar patterns of their childhood friendship, their discussions breaking through the monotony of Nel's married life. The chapter takes a sharp turn when Sula sleeps with Jude—a betrayal that Nel uncovers, shattering both the marriage and the friendship in one devastating blow. Jude leaves, while Sula remains, indifferent in a way that the community perceives as monstrous. Morrison portrays this rupture not through melodrama but with a haunting stillness: Nel's grief unfolds in a prolonged, almost detached introspection, while Sula's viewpoint remains elusive and hidden. The chapter concludes with Nel's sense of isolation, as the gossip in the Bottom begins to transform Sula into a figure of communal evil—a role that Morrison suggests the town has been preparing for her all along.

    Analysis

    Morrison's craft in "1937" relies on strategic withholding. We don't get access to Sula's thoughts at the moment we typically would—during her seduction of Jude—forcing us to feel the betrayal entirely through Nel's perspective. This isn’t just a quirk of point of view; it’s a deliberate choice: Sula is seen by those around her more as a projection than as a person.

    The chapter deepens the novel's central theme of the double. Nel and Sula have long been two halves of a single identity—Nel the compliant one, Sula the wild one—and the incident with Jude doesn’t merely shatter their friendship; it makes that split clear and permanent. Morrison doesn’t assign blame. The writing remains steady, almost devoid of emotion, even when it could be most hurtful, and that restraint becomes its own kind of wound.

    The community's reaction introduces a significant thematic shift: Sula's transgression is woven into the Bottom's mythology, turning a private act into a public symbol. Morrison illustrates how the deviance of Black women is collectively managed—Sula becomes the town's outlet for everything it fears and cannot articulate, a scapegoat whose existence oddly enhances communal behavior. The chapter also pushes Morrison's critique of marriage as an institution that diminishes women: Jude's leaving is portrayed less as a loss and more as a revelation of the life Nel had already been living. The year 1937 acts as a pivot—before it, there’s hope; after it, the long struggle to cope with the costs of friendship and societal norms begins.

    Key quotes

    • “She had been looking all along for a friend, and it took her a while to discover that a lover was not a comrade and could never be—for a woman.”

      Nel reflects on the aftermath of Jude's departure, articulating the novel's sharpest distinction between erotic and platonic bonds.

    • “Sula never competed; she simply helped others define themselves.”

      Morrison's narrator characterizes Sula's effect on those around her, framing her as a mirror rather than a rival—a function the community will later demonize.

    • “It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

      Nel's grief is rendered in this image near the chapter's close, Morrison's syntax enacting the shapeless, recursive nature of loss.

  8. Ch. 81939

    Summary

    In the "1939" chapter of Toni Morrison's Sula, Sula Peace makes her way back to the Bottom after being away for ten years, appearing ill and more isolated than ever. Nel Wright, her former best friend, comes to visit her in the rundown house on Carpenter's Road. The atmosphere is thick with unspoken tension as they navigate the pain of Jude's betrayal without directly addressing it. Sula, stuck in bed and cared for only by the indifferent Eva—who Sula had previously sent to a nursing home—speaks with a bold clarity that makes Nel uncomfortable. Sula stands firm in her choices, unapologetic about her affair with Jude and her refusal to fit into the Bottom's narrow expectations of womanhood. Nel, struggling to respond honestly, retreats into her moral judgments. Their talk ends without any sense of closure; Nel leaves, while Sula, left alone, thinks about death with a sense of curiosity rather than fear. The chapter wraps up with Sula's inner thoughts as she drifts closer to dying, experiencing it as a deeply personal and almost artistic moment.

    Analysis

    Morrison structures "1939" as a clash between two incompatible ways of knowing. Nel navigates the world by seeking consensus — she gauges her worth through community approval and finds solace in her identity as the wronged woman. In contrast, Sula relies solely on her own perspective, and Morrison skillfully avoids having the reader fully judge either stance. The key here is restraint: the dialogue remains indirect, with the true argument simmering just beneath the surface of their polite exchanges, only surfacing through Sula's piercing rhetorical questions.

    The motif of the birthmark — a rose stem above Sula's eye — reappears as Nel examines Sula's face, reminding us how perception influences identity. The mark has been interpreted as a tadpole, a snake, ash, and now, for Nel, something beyond her ability to name. It symbolizes Sula herself: resistant to meaning and open to projection.

    The chapter's most striking craft element is the tonal shift. Morrison transitions from the terse, almost courtroom-like dialogue of the women to the lyrical depth of Sula's dying thoughts, a change that embodies Sula's thesis — that the self, in its most independent form, is also the most isolated. The Bottom's communal voice, which has narrated much of the novel, falls silent here; we are left within one woman's mind. Death, portrayed as a sensation rather than a mere event, avoids sentimentality. Morrison's prose becomes more fluid and breath-like as Sula crosses the threshold — a formal mimicry of dissolution that represents some of the novel's most technically accomplished writing.

    Key quotes

    • “'I sure did live in this world.' 'Really? What have you got to show for it?' 'Show? To who? Girl, I got my mind. And what goes on in it. Which is to say, I got me.'”

      Sula responds to Nel's implicit accusation that her life has been wasteful, asserting selfhood as its own sufficient achievement.

    • “When you gone to get married? You need to have some babies. It'll settle you. 'I don't want to make somebody else. I want to make myself.'”

      Earlier dialogue recalled in this chapter's emotional undertow, crystallising the novel's central opposition between social reproduction and self-creation.

    • “She was not breathing. She felt the darkness, but she said she was not afraid.”

      Morrison's close-third narration hovers at the edge of Sula's consciousness in her final moments, rendering death as a willed, interior experience rather than an external event.

  9. Ch. 91940

    Summary

    The chapter opens in 1940 with Nel visiting Sula, who is now seriously ill and confined to bed in Eva's old house. Their reunion is tense, weighed down by the years of silence since Jude left and Sula's long absence from the Bottom. Nel comes out of a sense of obligation, but the visit quickly turns into a confrontation. Sula, defiant and sharp even in her weakened state, questions Nel's view of herself as the victim, arguing that Nel relished the sight of Chicken Little drowning years ago—that her goodness is more of an act than a reality. The two women exchange accusations and revelations with the familiarity of old friends who have never truly lost touch. Sula defends her life of unapologetic independence, belittling Nel's conventional choices as a kind of living death. Nel departs feeling rattled, unable to completely counter Sula's claims. Soon after the visit, Sula dies alone, and the narrative briefly explores her final moments—an odd, internal tranquility where she perceives her dying as just another experience, one she will eventually share with Sula, before recalling, with a touch of irony, that Sula is herself.

    Analysis

    Morrison designs this chapter as a tightly packed moral tribunal, where neither woman can walk away with a clear verdict. The sickroom setting makes literal what the novel has been hinting at throughout: intimacy as a space where identity becomes uncertain. Sula's illness removes the social threat she posed to the Bottom, but Morrison avoids sentimentalizing the deathbed—Sula remains defiant, her sharp wit intact, continuously challenging Nel's virtue with precision.

    The chapter's boldest craft move is the quick shift into Sula's dying thoughts. Morrison unexpectedly transitions from the hard edges of dialogue to a lyrical exploration of interiority that frames death as an object of curiosity rather than fear. The well-known closing thought—that Sula will tell Sula about this—blurs her identity into pure relationality, implying that Sula's sense of self has always been shaped by her connection with Nel, even amidst their rupture.

    The motifs of watching and witnessing, woven throughout the novel since Chicken Little's drowning, reach a climax here. Sula's claim that Nel watched implicates observers as complicit, complicating the novel's entire moral structure. Morrison also uses temperature imagery: Sula's feverish heat contrasts sharply with the cold propriety Nel brings with her, highlighting the central tension between excess and restraint. The chapter's shift from confrontation to elegy is executed with remarkable precision—Morrison allocates barely a paragraph to Sula's death, yet it resonates deeply as the novel's emotional core.

    Key quotes

    • “'I sure did live in this world.' 'Really? What did you get out of it?' 'Got it. I got it all.'”

      Sula responds to Nel's implicit judgement of her choices, asserting radical self-possession as its own sufficient reward.

    • “'You. Sula. What's the difference? You was there. You watched, didn't you?'”

      Sula implicates Nel in Chicken Little's drowning, destabilising Nel's long-held self-image as innocent bystander and moral superior.

    • “'Well, I'll be damned,' she thought, 'it didn't even hurt. Wait'll I tell Nel.'”

      Sula's final thought as she dies, a moment of darkly ironic self-dissolution in which she forgets she and Nel are no longer one continuous self.

  10. Ch. 101941

    Summary

    In the "1941" chapter of Toni Morrison's Sula, the Bottom community is coming to terms with the loss of Sula, who died the previous year. The chapter begins with a strange, growing restlessness among the townspeople, who become increasingly focused on the tunnel being built near Medallion—a project that has historically excluded Black workers. On January 3rd, known as National Suicide Day, Shadrack leads his annual procession as he does every year, but this time, the community, shaken by Sula's absence and years of unresolved issues, joins him in greater numbers than ever. The parade takes on a lively, almost frenzied atmosphere as residents follow Shadrack toward the tunnel. What starts as a dark celebration quickly turns tragic: the crowd pushes into the unfinished tunnel, causing the hillside to give way, resulting in the deaths of many Bottom residents. Shadrack, who survives, is left to witness the devastation he never intended to bring about. The chapter ends with a grim twist—the ritual meant to manage death has instead led to its direct arrival.

    Analysis

    Morrison makes a powerful tonal shift in "1941," turning Shadrack's absurd ritual into real tragedy with one sharp escalation. For decades, National Suicide Day has acted as a pressure valve for the community—a sanctioned display of chaos that, strangely, upheld order. With Sula gone, this symbolic balance crumbles. Morrison highlights this change through the crowd's body language: where townspeople once stood watching from doorways, they now follow, a choreographic shift that carries significant meaning.

    The tunnel stands as Morrison's most potent symbol in this context. Built by white capital and closed off to Black labor, it embodies the structural exclusion that the Bottom has faced for generations. The community's rush into it signifies reclamation, rebellion, and self-destruction all at once—Morrison doesn’t resolve this ambiguity. The collapse makes tangible what exclusion has always been doing gradually.

    Shadrack's survival is the chapter's cruelest twist. The man who created a holiday to cope with his fear of sudden death now watches the holiday dominate everyone else. His silence after the disaster speaks more than any elegy Morrison could have crafted. This chapter also wraps up the novel’s exploration of the link between individual deviance and community health: Sula's "evil" had, ironically, given the Bottom a focus for its energy. Without her, that energy spirals both inward and outward, leading to tragic consequences. The prose in this chapter is at its most dynamic, with short, declarative sentences speeding up into the tunnel sequence before falling very quiet.

    Key quotes

    • “They killed, as best they could, the tunnel they were forbidden to build.”

      Morrison's narrator describes the crowd's assault on the tunnel structure, crystallizing the chapter's central irony of destruction as displaced desire.

    • “Shadrack and the sea. Shadrack and the peace he had found there.”

      Reflecting on Shadrack's inner life after the disaster, Morrison returns to the sea imagery that has defined his psychology since the novel's opening chapter.

    • “It was not death they were dancing toward, but life—and its promise of a better time.”

      The narrator characterizes the crowd's mood as the procession swells, making the subsequent catastrophe all the more devastating by framing the march as an act of hope.

  11. Ch. 111965

    Summary

    Set in 1965, this chapter follows Nel Wright in the years following Sula's death. Nel has embraced a quiet, respectable life as a widow in the Bottom, raising her children and leading the steady, unremarkable existence she always seemed meant for. When she visits Eva Peace in the nursing home—now aged, frail, and confined—the encounter disturbs Nel more than she expected. Eva, still sharp-tongued despite her decline, accuses Nel of having watched Chicken Little drown all those years ago, conflating her with Sula in a way that Nel angrily rejects. The accusation sticks with Nel like a splinter. As she leaves the nursing home, she walks through a neighborhood that is disappearing—the tunnel project and urban renewal are erasing the Bottom piece by piece. In the novel's closing movement, Nel passes the cemetery where Sula is buried and is overwhelmed by grief she has never fully acknowledged. For the first time, she realizes that the loss she has felt for decades was not Jude's but Sula's. She cries out into the evening air, and the sound she makes—"girl, girl, girlgirlgirl"—becomes the novel's final image: raw, belated, and irreducible.

    Analysis

    Morrison concludes Sula with a chapter that serves as its own kind of reckoning, urging both Nel and the reader to reflect on what has been mourned and what has been hidden away. The scene with Eva exemplifies Morrison's skill with the unreliable elder; Eva's senility remains ambiguous, leaving her claim—that Nel watched, that Nel desired—hanging in a space between delusion and reality. Eva's confusion between Nel and Sula is not just a mistake; it encapsulates the novel's main argument that the two women represent two halves of a single identity, and Nel's moral self-image comes at the expense of true self-awareness.

    In the cemetery passage, Morrison's writing shifts dramatically. The controlled, ironic third-person perspective that has defined the novel transforms into something more lyrical, as personal feelings take over the narrative. The repeated use of "girl" in the final lines creates a rhythmic chant—grief expressed as pure sound, devoid of syntax and social constraints. It also harkens back to the girls they once were, collapsing time into a single syllable.

    The chapter's urban setting—the Bottom being razed, the tunnel that claimed so many lives now a site of civic erasure—reflects Nel's internal exploration. What has been built, what has been lost, what has never been named: Morrison emphasizes that these questions resonate with both a community and a friendship. The shift from bitter irony to open sorrow is the novel's boldest craft choice, and it resonates deeply because Morrison has earned every moment of it.

    Key quotes

    • “It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

      The novel's final lines describe Nel's grief in the cemetery, rendering emotion as pure, formless sound rather than coherent feeling.

    • “'You. Sula. What's the difference? You was there. You watched, didn't you? Me, I never would of watched.'”

      Eva Peace, in the nursing home, levels her accusation at Nel, refusing to distinguish between the two women who were present at Chicken Little's drowning.

    • “All that time, all that time, I thought I was missing Jude. And the loss pressed down on her chest and came up into her throat. 'We was girls together,' she said aloud.”

      Nel's epiphany at the cemetery, the moment she finally identifies the true object of her decades-long grief.

02·Characters

Who's who, and what they want.

  • Ajax (Albert Jacks)

    Ajax (Albert Jacks) is a minor but thematically significant character in Toni Morrison's Sula. He is introduced early on as one of the young men who mock Nel and Sula with sexually charged remarks during their walk home, immediately marking him as bold, irreverent, and untamed. His role becomes crucial in the latter half of the novel when Sula returns to the Bottom after a decade away, and the two embark on a passionate affair. Ajax stands out among the men in Sula's life because he treats her as an intellectual equal, bringing her bottles of milk and blueing as signs of genuine care rather than possessiveness. He is devoted to his conjure-woman mother and has a fascination with airplanes—two obsessions that reflect his yearning for freedom and the extraordinary, rather than adherence to societal norms.

    The affair unravels when Sula begins to show the domestic instincts she has always rejected. As she organizes his medicine cabinet and envisions a future with him, Ajax senses the change and leaves without a word. His departure highlights the novel's sharpest irony: Sula, who has resisted everyone else's attempts to claim her, loses the one man who could have matched her precisely because she briefly gives in to that same desire for connection. After he leaves, Sula realizes she never even knew his real name—Albert Jacks—a detail Morrison emphasizes to illustrate how completely Sula's fantasy had overshadowed the real person. Ajax thus serves as a reflection of Sula's contradictions and reinforces Morrison's message that true freedom, even between kindred spirits, is fragile and self-sabotaging.

    Connected to Sula Peace · Nel Wright · Shadrack · Jude Greene · Hannah Peace

  • Chicken Little

    Chicken Little is a young Black boy in Toni Morrison's Sula whose brief appearance carries significant narrative weight. He lives in the Bottom, the hillside Black community of Medallion, Ohio, and appears in a single pivotal scene set in 1922. While playing near the river with Sula and Nel, he climbs a tree at Sula's encouragement. When he reaches her, she swings him around in a moment of pure, joyful abandon — but her grip slips, and he flies out over the water, sinking without a trace. His death is accidental, yet it becomes the defining secret that binds Sula and Nel together for decades, a shared guilt neither fully processes nor confesses.

    Chicken Little serves more as a moral and psychological catalyst than as a fully developed character. His innocence — he is just a child at play, laughing as he is swung — makes his death all the more devastating. The scene is depicted with lyrical precision: the arc of his small body, the "closed place in the water," and the terrible silence that follows. Crucially, Shadrack witnesses the moment from his doorway, a detail that resurfaces years later when Sula visits him, though neither speaks of what they witnessed.

    Chicken Little's drowning establishes Morrison's central theme that disaster can arise from joy, and that complicity — even unintentional — reshapes identity. His unrecovered body and the community's muted mourning highlight the novel's exploration of Black death, grief, and the limits of innocence.

    Connected to Sula Peace · Nel Wright · Shadrack

  • Eva Peace

    Eva Peace is the strong matriarch of the Peace household in Toni Morrison's Sula, a woman whose life is shaped by intense acts of determination and a fierce, sometimes frightening love. After being abandoned by her husband BoyBoy with three small children and no financial support, Eva vanishes for eighteen months. When she returns, she has lost a leg and possesses enough money to build the sprawling, multi-story house that becomes the heart of the Bottom's community. Morrison leaves the circumstances of Eva's leg loss ambiguous, hinting at the unsettling possibility that she might have sacrificed it for insurance money—an act that illustrates her readiness to harm herself to protect her family.

    Eva governs her household from a rolling chair and a makeshift throne in an upstairs bedroom, wielding judgment, generosity, and violence with equal force. She takes in boarders like the Deweys and Tar Baby, offering shelter to those in need, yet her love often morphs into control. One of her most devastating actions is when she burns her son Plum alive in his bed—a mercy killing she rationalizes as reclaiming him from his heroin addiction before he can regress into her womb. Later, when she witnesses Hannah burning in the yard, onlookers say Eva jumped from an upstairs window to save her, though she arrives too late.

    Eva's final journey is marked by dispossession: Sula has her committed to a nursing home, turning the tables on Eva's previous control over life and death. Confined and weakened, Eva encounters Nel near the end of the novel, accusing her of being complicit in Chicken Little's drowning—a final act of insight that disrupts the novel's moral framework.

    Connected to Hannah Peace · Plum (Ralph) Peace · Sula Peace · Nel Wright · Chicken Little

  • Hannah Peace

    Hannah Peace is Eva Peace's middle child and the mother of Sula, representing a figure of uncomplicated and almost impersonal sensuality, as well as passive maternal warmth, in Toni Morrison's Sula. She exists in the Peace household in the Bottom as a calm, always-desirable presence. Widowed at a young age, she moves through the neighborhood's married men with cheerful, guilt-free ease, not looking for romance or possession—just the physical comfort of being wanted. Morrison uses Hannah to showcase a sexuality that is neither predatory nor shameful, establishing a model that Sula will later challenge.

    The most heartbreaking moment for Hannah comes when she quietly confesses to a neighbor that she loves Sula but does not like her—a remark that Sula overhears as a child, which Morrison suggests leaves a lasting scar, shattering Sula's hope for unconditional maternal acceptance and pushing her toward radical independence.

    Hannah's story ends suddenly and tragically: while canning in the yard, her dress catches fire, leading to her death by burning. The scene is depicted with a nightmarish intensity—Eva watches from an upstairs window and jumps (or claims to jump) in a desperate attempt to extinguish the flames. This moment crystallizes Eva's complex love and hints at the novel's exploration of how the Peace women both harm and are harmed by those closest to them. Hannah functions more as a thematic pivot than a fully fleshed-out character: her sensuality, her blunt honesty, and her horrific death all influence the women who remain.

    Connected to Eva Peace · Sula Peace · Plum (Ralph) Peace

  • Helene Wright

    Helene Wright is Nel's mother and a powerful symbol of respectability and social conformity in Toni Morrison's Sula. Born to a Creole prostitute in New Orleans, Helene was raised by her strict grandmother Cecile, and she spent her adult life trying to distance herself from her past. She marries Wiley Wright, joins the most conservative church in the Bottom, and creates a meticulously ordered household—starched curtains, polished floors, and a tightly controlled daughter—as a way to showcase her moral worth.

    One of the most telling moments in the story happens during the train ride to New Orleans for Cecile's funeral. Faced with a white conductor's disdain, Helene reacts not with dignity but with a "dazzling smile" that signals submission, a moment that visibly disgusts the Black soldiers who witness it and deeply disturbs Nel. This scene highlights Helene's central conflict: her desire for approval from white authority erodes the self-possession she tries to maintain at home.

    As a mother, Helene's controlling love shapes Nel into a compliant, self-effacing girl—until Sula's influence starts to break that mold. Helene's character arc remains largely unchanged; she never gains true self-awareness, serving instead as a cautionary figure whose obsessive pursuit of respectability robs her daughter of an authentic identity and leaves Helene herself without any real inner life. Her qualities—pride, fear, discipline, and a profound shame about her past—illustrate Morrison's critique of how internalized racism and class anxiety can disguise themselves as virtue.

    Connected to Nel Wright · Sula Peace · Eva Peace · Jude Greene · Shadrack

  • Jude Greene

    Jude Greene is a secondary but crucial character in Toni Morrison's Sula. He mainly serves as Nel Wright's husband and, later, becomes the spark for the novel's central betrayal. Introduced as a young Black man frustrated by his inability to find work on the New River Road construction project—a job that is only for white workers—Jude directs his wounded pride and unfulfilled ambitions into his marriage. He pursues Nel not from genuine love but from a need for "someone to care about his hurt," effectively turning her into an emotional support for his masculine identity rather than a true partner.

    Jude is charming and socially ambitious, earning enough respect in the Bottom to work as a waiter at the Hotel Medallion, yet he remains consumed by resentment toward a racist system that limits his greater ambitions. His story takes a devastating turn when he has an affair with Sula—Nel's lifelong best friend—and is caught. Instead of confronting the moral implications of his betrayal, he simply vanishes, leaving Nel and their children without any explanation or apology. This cowardly act robs Nel of her identity as a wife and reveals how completely Jude had relied on her as a reflection of his self-worth.

    Jude never reappears in the story after his departure, but his absence profoundly influences Nel's grief for decades. He represents Morrison's critique of how the needs of patriarchal society and racial emasculation can collide to harm Black women, making him an example of how systemic injury is often projected onto intimate relationships.

    Connected to Nel Wright · Sula Peace · Helene Wright

  • Nel Wright

    Nel Wright is one of the two main characters in Toni Morrison's Sula, providing a moral and social framework against which Sula Peace's radical freedom is assessed. Raised by the proper and status-conscious Helene Wright, Nel learns early on to suppress her instincts and adhere to the respectability expected of Black women in the Medallion's Bottom community. Her journey evolves from a painful awakening—highlighted during a train ride to New Orleans, where she silently witnesses her mother's humiliation and resolves, "I'm me. I'm not their daughter"—to a long, stifling domestic life.

    Nel's friendship with Sula, which begins in childhood, forms the emotional core of the novel. The two girls share the traumatic secret of Chicken Little's drowning, a bond forged in silence and complicity. Nel opts for the traditional route: she marries Jude Greene, establishes a household, and defines herself through her roles as a wife and mother. When Sula returns to the Bottom and sleeps with Jude, Nel feels the betrayal as a loss of her own identity, not just her husband. She copes with her grief through a cold self-righteousness, refusing to visit the dying Sula and holding tightly to her moral superiority.

    Nel's most profound moment of self-awareness occurs at the novel's conclusion, decades later, when she visits the elderly Eva Peace and is compelled to confront the truth that it was she—not Sula—who felt the "thrill" as Chicken Little slipped beneath the water. Her final cry of "girl, girl, girlgirlgirl" signifies her delayed realization that her true identity was always intertwined with Sula, not Jude.

    Connected to Sula Peace · Helene Wright · Jude Greene · Chicken Little · Eva Peace · Shadrack · Hannah Peace · Ajax (Albert Jacks)

  • Plum (Ralph) Peace

    Plum Peace (Ralph) is Eva Peace's youngest child and only son, whose brief yet devastating journey anchors one of the novel's most disturbing and morally complex scenes. Beloved more than any of her other children, Plum is the focus of Eva's fierce, almost suffocating maternal devotion—highlighted early on when Eva manually helps relieve the constipated infant Plum, an act of raw, physical love that underscores the possessive intensity she feels for him. Although Plum survives World War I, he returns a shell of his former self, sinking into heroin addiction and regressing to an infantile state, spending his days in a stupor in the basement of the Peace home. Unable to bear the sight of her golden son descending into helplessness, Eva makes the catastrophic choice to pour kerosene over his sleeping body and ignite it, killing him. In the moral framework of the novel, Eva presents this as an act of mercy—she tells Hannah she wouldn’t allow him to "crawl back" into her womb—but this action is also an assertion of total maternal control and a profound violation. Plum himself remains mostly passive and voiceless throughout the narrative; he serves more as a catalyst than a fully developed character, with his death prompting both readers and characters to question the nature of love, ownership, and sacrifice. His destruction foreshadows Hannah's own death by fire and establishes the psychological groundwork for Eva's domineering, life-and-death authority over her family. Plum's tragedy encapsulates Toni Morrison's exploration of how love, when unchecked, can lead to annihilation.

    Connected to Eva Peace · Hannah Peace · Sula Peace

  • Shadrack

    Shadrack is a Black World War I veteran who returns to the Bottom, an African American hillside community in Medallion, Ohio, deeply affected by the psychological scars of war. After witnessing the horrific death of a fellow soldier in the trenches, he comes home in 1919 struggling with an overwhelming fear of dying. To cope, he creates National Suicide Day, held each January 3rd, during which he rings a bell and marches through the Bottom, encouraging the community to face and manage their mortality. Although initially seen as dangerous and insane, he gradually becomes accepted and even integrated into the community as an eccentric yet grounding figure.

    Shadrack's journey is marked by his traumatic isolation, interrupted by two significant moments of unexpected connection. When a young girl named Sula runs from his shack after unintentionally seeing Chicken Little drown, she leaves behind her belt. Shadrack, having caught a glimpse of her frightened expression, keeps the belt as a symbolic reminder and tells her simply "always" — a gesture aimed at reassuring her that she will endure, that death is not arbitrary. This silent connection between two outcasts is one of the novel's most poignant ironies. His heartbreaking conclusion arrives when the residents of the Bottom, in a moment of collective recklessness, follow his National Suicide Day march into the tunnel that they were excluded from constructing — with many tragically dying in its collapse. Shadrack, the creator of the ritual, survives, left to ring his bell in an empty silence. He represents Morrison's exploration of trauma, community, and the fragile boundary between madness and prophetic insight.

    Connected to Sula Peace · Chicken Little · Nel Wright · Eva Peace · Jude Greene

  • Sula Peace

    Sula Peace is the main character in Toni Morrison's 1973 novel Sula. She is a Black woman from the Bottom, a community overlooking Medallion, Ohio, and her life is marked by a commitment to self-invention and a rejection of societal norms. Orphaned and lacking strong parental guidance—her grandmother Eva rules with an iron fist, while her mother Hannah loves her children in a distant way—Sula grows up feeling emotionally adrift, forging a close bond with Nel Wright during her childhood and adolescence.

    Her story turns on two traumatic events: the accidental drowning of Chicken Little, whose small body she tosses into the river, and her silent witness to Hannah's death by fire while Eva jumps out of a window to save her. These moments harden Sula's emotional detachment; she experiences guilt but struggles to process it with others. After spending a decade at college and moving through various cities and relationships, she returns to the Bottom in 1937, sleeps with Nel's husband Jude, and is subsequently shunned by the community, becoming a symbol of evil.

    Sula is characterized by her fierce independence, restless intellect, and a brutal honesty that often feels cruel. Her brief, passionate relationship with Ajax shows her ability to love deeply, but her possessiveness ultimately drives him away. She dies alone from an unspecified illness, and her death strangely disrupts the Bottom, implying that the community relied on her as a scapegoat to uphold its identity. Sula represents Morrison's exploration of the costs a Black woman faces when she chooses to live entirely for herself.

    Connected to Nel Wright · Eva Peace · Hannah Peace · Chicken Little · Jude Greene · Ajax (Albert Jacks) · Shadrack · Plum (Ralph) Peace · Helene Wright

03·Themes

The ideas the work keeps returning to.

CommunityDeathFreedomFriendshipGood and EvilIdentityLonelinessRace and Racism

Community

In Toni Morrison's Sula, the Bottom—a Black hill community in Ohio—operates more like a living organism than just a setting, possessing its own memory, needs, and defenses. The community engages in collective surveillance, interpreting each other's actions as a shared text, determining what behaviors are acceptable and which ones must be cast out. When Sula returns after a decade away, the Bottom doesn't merely gossip about her; it reorganizes itself around her presence, viewing her as a necessary evil that, paradoxically, strengthens social connections. Wives pay closer attention to their husbands, and mothers become more protective of their children—Morrison illustrates how the community defines virtue by contrasting it with Sula's perceived wickedness.

The National Suicide Day ritual introduced by Shadrack exemplifies how the Bottom processes trauma into a communal experience. What starts as one man's private fear of death evolves over the years into a date the entire community observes in silence, turning individual pain into a shared event. Morrison presents this absorption neither as ridicule nor total acceptance—it reflects the community's unique approach: incorporating experiences without fully grasping them.

Eva Peace's household, filled with boarders, drifters, and children with new names, reflects the Bottom's own tendency to expand. People come, adopt new identities, and become part of a structure that endures beyond any single individual’s desires.

The novel's heartbreaking final pages—where the Bottom vanishes, replaced by a golf course, and Nel's grief emerges—imply that community is not a lasting achievement but a delicate, historically contingent act of collective imagination. Its absence is felt physically: Nel's grief manifests as an unnameable cry, echoing the sound of a disbanded neighborhood.

Death

In Toni Morrison's Sula, death isn't just a singular event; it's a recurring theme that permeates the community of the Bottom. The novel begins with the Bottom already erased as a place — a neighborhood that feels dead by the time the narrator speaks — so every subsequent scene carries the weight of an ending that’s already anticipated.

The drowning of Chicken Little stands out as the novel's most crucial death moment. When Sula accidentally swings the small boy over the river and he slips from her grasp, neither she nor Nel screams or calls for help; they simply watch in near-silence as the water engulfs him. Morrison avoids turning this moment into melodrama. Instead, the girls' stillness implicates them both, and the incident becomes a hidden guilt for Nel, surfacing only decades later — illustrating how death in the novel manifests as a buried wound rather than a clear fracture.

Eva Peace's relationship with death feels almost bureaucratic. Many believe she sacrificed her own leg for insurance money to provide for her children, and later, she sets her son Plum on fire to spare him from addiction — framing it as a mercy, a way to return him to the womb. This act is both monstrous and maternal, blurring the line between creation and destruction.

The annual observance of National Suicide Day, established by Shadrack after his trauma from World War I, turns death into a communal event. By assigning a specific date to death, Shadrack tries to impose order on its randomness; the irony lies in the fact that the day ultimately claims the marchers themselves, who drown in the incomplete tunnel. Morrison emphasizes that death cannot be tamed — only fleetingly, tragically, postponed.

Freedom

In Toni Morrison's Sula, freedom isn't portrayed as liberation but as a perilous, uncharted state—one that the Bottom community cannot fully provide or completely suppress. Sula Peace, the novel's most radical representation of this theme, returns to Medallion after ten years, having discarded all conventional responsibilities: she doesn’t marry, doesn’t become a mother, and doesn’t grieve in accepted ways. When she opts to place Eva in a nursing home instead of caring for her, the community views this as monstrous. However, Morrison presents it as a logical expression of a self that refuses to be bound by duty. Sula’s freedom isn’t filled with joy; it’s stark and isolating, especially evident when she watches her mother Hannah burn without intervening—a moment Morrison deliberately differentiates from indifference, portraying it instead as a kind of profound, halted witnessing unique to Sula.

In contrast, Nel Wright briefly experiences selfhood during her train journey south, where she straightens her spine and recognizes that she is her own person, separate from her mother’s expectations of respectability. However, she relinquishes that budding freedom by marrying and seeking the approval of her neighborhood. Morrison highlights the cost of this choice in the novel's final pages, as Nel comes to realize, years later, that the grief she has carried was not just for Jude, but also for Sula—and for the part of herself that she allowed to die.

The Bottom community itself embodies a shared ambivalence: it requires Sula as a scapegoat to define its own limited freedoms, shutting her out while simultaneously acknowledging that she helps keep its members cautious and alive. Thus, freedom in Sula is fundamentally relational—claimed by one individual at the cost of another's comfort, and rarely sustainable in isolation.

Friendship

In Toni Morrison's Sula, female friendship takes center stage, forming the novel's core. This bond is so powerful that it rivals and ultimately outlasts every other connection either woman develops.

The relationship between Nel Wright and Sula Peace begins in childhood, representing a kind of mutual fulfillment. Nel, who grows up in a home steeped in rigid propriety, discovers in Sula a freedom she struggles to find on her own. Meanwhile, Sula, raised by a grandmother known for her harsh pragmatism and a mother who embodies casual sexuality, finds in Nel the stability that eludes her at home. Morrison depicts their early closeness as almost unspoken — the two girls lying in the grass, digging holes with sticks in a moment that feels both innocent and oddly ritualistic, as if they are unearthing a shared secret world.

The drowning of Chicken Little signifies the first crack in their friendship, yet the secret they share binds them together as much as it drives them apart. Their silence creates a dark intimacy, a burden they alone bear.

The adult rupture occurs when Nel discovers that Sula has slept with Jude, which is heartbreaking because this betrayal cuts deeper than marital infidelity. Morrison emphasizes that Nel's sorrow stems less from losing a husband than from losing Sula herself — a truth that Nel doesn't confront for many years.

The final pages of the novel solidify this idea. Years later, as Nel stands at Sula's grave, she suddenly understands that the cry rising within her is not for Jude but for her friend. This delayed realization — finally naming the shape of her loss — is Morrison's message: the friendship was the true love story all along.

Good and Evil

In Toni Morrison's Sula, the concepts of good and evil challenge the rigid moral frameworks imposed by the Bottom's community, existing instead as intertwined forces that define one another's existence.

The novel explores this theme most clearly through Eva Peace's judgment of Sula as "a rooster," implying that Sula has never understood what it means to be a hen — a being so self-sufficient that it can't see the relational ethics that bind a community. Yet Eva herself has committed the horrific act of burning her son Plum alive, an act the community quietly accepts rather than condemns, because she frames this destruction as an expression of love. Morrison skillfully avoids allowing either woman to hold a purely moral stance.

Sula's return to the Bottom is likened to a plague: a plague of robins, of illness, and of unfaithful husbands. The townspeople rally their goodness against her, using her perceived evil to define their own virtue. Morrison underscores this point—without Sula as a target for blame and fear, the community's generosity and unity begin to unravel after her death.

The childhood drowning of Chicken Little casts a long shadow over both Sula and Nel for many years, yet affects them in contrasting ways. Nel's horror is expressed outwardly and socially; Sula's is internal and unarticulated. When Nel finally faces her feelings about watching the boy drown — not grief but a "fine gray joy" — Morrison blurs the lines between the two women, implying that the capacity for what the community labels as evil was never solely Sula’s.

The birthmark above Sula's eye, interpreted variously as a rose, a snake, or ash, encapsulates this ambiguity: evil and beauty, danger and vitality, all inscribed on the same face.

Identity

In Toni Morrison's Sula, identity isn't a fixed trait but rather a constantly contested space, influenced by community expectations, friendship, and the rejection of both. The novel's main conflict arises from the contrasting identities of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who start off as reflections of each other but ultimately serve as cautionary examples. Nel internalizes the Bottom's standards of womanhood to the point that her identity merges with her roles in marriage and her neighborhood; she only acknowledges her individuality — "I'm me. I'm not their daughter. I'm not Nel. I'm me." — as a girl, and then spends the rest of the novel gradually losing that hard-won insight. Sula, in contrast, views her identity as her only available canvas: without children, a husband, or community validation, she turns her life into a work of art focused on pure self-expression, which the Bottom interprets as witchcraft and moral decay.

Morrison employs the birthmark above Sula's eye as a motif representing the fluidity of identity: various characters see it as a rose, a snake, a stemmed flower, or even Hannah's ashes — each interpretation exposing the viewer's own fears and desires rather than anything intrinsic about Sula herself. This variability indicates that identity in the novel is always somewhat shaped by external forces.

The friendship itself acts as a dual identity: together, Nel and Sula create one whole person, and their split after Jude's betrayal leaves both women fragmented. Nel's sorrow over Sula's death — her sudden realization that it was Sula, not Jude, whose absence left her feeling empty — reshapes the entire story as an exploration of how selfhood depends on, and is threatened by, the presence of another.

Loneliness

In Toni Morrison's Sula, loneliness isn't just a fleeting feeling; it's a deep-seated condition that characters inherit, create, and sometimes turn into a weapon. The setting emphasizes this from the beginning: the Bottom, a Black community on a hillside, is a place born from a cruel joke, marked by isolation and cut off from the valley's wealth and attention.

Eva Peace represents loneliness through her enduring strength. After being abandoned by BoyBoy, she vanishes for eighteen months and returns without a leg but with money — the missing part of her story echoes the missing part of her body, both silences she chooses not to address. She constructs a house with borders and boarders, filling her space with people while remaining fundamentally unreachable. Her act of burning Plum, framed as love, also reveals a woman who cannot handle being needed in ways that would make her vulnerable.

The friendship between Nel and Sula is the novel's main effort to combat loneliness, and its failure becomes its deepest wound. Morrison portrays their connection as a kind of duality — each woman fulfilling something the other lacks — so that their estrangement after the river incident leaves both feeling incomplete. Nel’s poignant realization at the end, when she understands she has been mourning Sula instead of Jude, brings to light the loneliness she has carried for years without acknowledging it.

Sula approaches loneliness almost like an experiment, moving from man to man not to find connection but to see herself reflected in their eyes. Her acknowledgment on her deathbed that dying is a solitary act feels less like giving up and more like the inevitable conclusion of a life she always knew would be alone.

Race and Racism

In Toni Morrison's Sula, race and racism function more like an invisible framework than a dramatic clash, influencing every aspect of the Bottom. The neighborhood’s very creation is rooted in a racist joke: a white farmer tricks a formerly enslaved man into taking hillside land by calling it the "bottom of heaven," presenting worthlessness as a blessing. This origin story fills the novel's landscape with irony — the community lives on land that nobody else wanted, symbolizing their place in American society.

The effects of racism are most apparent in how the community deals with its own pain. The Bottom's residents absorb white hostility so frequently that they turn their frustration on each other, choosing to police one another instead of confronting their oppressors. Sula's nonconformity is criticized by neighbors who lack the power to challenge the white world but have the ability to ostracize her. Through this, Morrison illustrates how systemic racism fosters internal surveillance as a way to cope.

Shadrack's National Suicide Day, stemming from his trauma in World War I, subtly criticizes a nation that sends Black men to fight for a country that fails to protect them at home. His ritual is often dismissed as madness, but it serves as the only sincere public acknowledgment of the fragility of Black life.

The novel concludes with white businesses eventually purchasing the Bottom once it becomes valuable, reinforcing the structural argument: even the one space the community created for themselves is ultimately taken over by white economic power. Morrison refrains from commenting directly; she allows the land itself to bear witness to the enduring impact of racism.

04·Symbols & motifs

Objects, images, and motifs worth tracking.

  • Fire

    In Toni Morrison's Sula, fire represents destructive power, transgression, and the frightening outcomes of uncontrolled impulses. It consumes what society holds dear—like childhood innocence, family ties, and moral order. The fire is especially significant for characters who live outside traditional norms, particularly the Peace women, whose connection to fire reflects their defiance of conformity. Instead of providing warmth or illumination, fire acts as a force of destruction in the novel, revealing how fragile community, identity, and love can be. There's also a sense of compulsion: characters are irresistibly drawn to fire, even when it threatens to destroy their most valued possessions.

    Evidence

    The most striking moment occurs when Eva Peace intentionally sets her son Plum on fire. After returning from war broken and addicted, Plum slips into a state of infantile helplessness. Unable to cope with his regression, Eva pours kerosene on him and ignites the flames, rationalizing the act as a mercy killing meant to restore his manhood. In this scene, fire intertwines maternal love with destruction. Later, Eva witnesses her daughter Hannah accidentally catch fire in the yard from a grease fire. In a desperate attempt to extinguish the flames, she leaps from her window but loses the battle against the devastation she once controlled. Most unsettling is the image of young Sula watching Hannah burn without intervening; her expression reveals a fascination rather than horror. This moment shapes Sula into a character that feels detached from typical moral responses. Finally, the novel's tragic conclusion at the tunnel depicts the Bottom's community engulfed by a different form of destructive energy, mirroring fire's earlier function as a force that obliterates rather than enlightens.

  • National Suicide Day

    In Toni Morrison's Sula, National Suicide Day—an annual ritual held on January 3rd by Shadrack—captures Medallion's troubled relationship with death, trauma, and the quest for mental stability. After returning from World War I, deeply affected by the violence he experienced, Shadrack creates this holiday to confine death to a single, predictable day, making it less frightening. The ritual reflects the collective mindset of the Bottom's residents: they initially fear and ridicule it, but over time, it becomes part of their shared identity. National Suicide Day ultimately highlights the fragile boundary between madness and survival, as well as the human drive to impose order on chaos and the inevitability of mortality.

    Evidence

    Shadrack creates National Suicide Day in 1919 after returning from the war, haunted by the memory of a soldier whose head was blown off during a battle. Traumatized and briefly placed in an institution, he walks through the Bottom ringing a cowbell and carrying a hangman's rope, urging residents to "kill themselves or each other" on this single day. Initially, townspeople lock their doors in fear. However, over the decades, the ritual loses its threat; by 1941, residents join Shadrack's march in a nearly festive spirit. The holiday's darkest irony unfolds at the novel's climax when the procession reaches the unfinished New River Road tunnel—a project that denied jobs to Black workers—and the crowd, caught up in a collective frenzy, rushes inside. The tunnel collapses, resulting in numerous deaths. Morrison thus transforms Shadrack's private coping mechanism into a communal tragedy, highlighting how a symbol of controlled death ultimately leads to real, uncontrollable destruction rooted in racial injustice and repressed grief.

  • Sula's Birthmark

    In Toni Morrison's Sula, the dark birthmark above Sula Peace's eye serves as a complex symbol of her otherness and identity, as well as the way society assigns meaning to Black women's bodies. Since the mark can be interpreted in various ways—some see it as a stemmed rose, others as a snake, a tadpole, or even Hannah's ashes—it reflects the instability of identity itself. More generally, the birthmark illustrates how a community, struggling to accept strong female independence, turns a neutral physical characteristic into a symbol of evil or danger. This transformation reveals more about the fears and desires of the observers than about Sula herself.

    Evidence

    Morrison introduces the birthmark early on, noting that Jude sees it as a copperhead snake, which ties Sula to danger and betrayal—an interpretation that deepens after Sula sleeps with him. Nel, on the other hand, once viewed it as a rose, representing beauty and friendship. Ajax, the only man who approaches Sula on her own terms, sees it as a tadpole, hinting at something still developing rather than set in stone. The townspeople of the Bottom collectively reinterpret the mark as Hannah's ashes after Sula witnesses her mother burn without stepping in, reinforcing their perception of her as unnatural. In the novel's final movement, as Sula lies dying and Nel comes to visit, the birthmark is described almost tenderly, devoid of threat—indicating that without the community's judgment, it is merely a part of Sula, neither wholly evil nor innocent, but unmistakably hers.

  • The Bottom (the Black neighborhood)

    In Toni Morrison's Sula, the Bottom—a Black neighborhood situated on the hills above Medallion, Ohio—captures the harsh reversal of power, promise, and belonging. Its creation is rooted in deception: a white man tricks an enslaved person into believing that this rocky, unworkable land is the "bottom of heaven," the best land available. This neighborhood thus reflects the deep-seated falsehood of racial oppression, where what appears to be a reward is actually a burden. However, the Bottom also evolves into a space of true community, resilience, and identity. Its eventual destruction—as white residents reclaim the hills—marks the erasure of Black communal life by systemic economic and social forces.

    Evidence

    Morrison begins the novel by recounting the story behind the Bottom's name: a white farmer deceives a formerly enslaved man into accepting hilly, barren land by claiming it’s “the bottom of heaven—best land there is,” flipping the meaning of geography and value to take advantage of him. This original trickery sets the stage for everything that follows. The Bottom is where Eva Peace establishes her home and leads her family, where the community gathers for Shadrack's National Suicide Day parade, and where Sula's return from college is met with skepticism. The neighborhood's close-knit social dynamics—filled with gossip, judgment, and strong loyalty—shape both Nel's traditional life and Sula's defiant one. In the novel's haunting final pages, the Bottom has been destroyed; white residents from Medallion have relocated uphill for a better view, and Nel's sorrow over Sula intertwines with a sense of loss for the community, making the Bottom's destruction a profound personal and cultural tragedy.

  • The Plague of Robins

    In Toni Morrison's Sula, the sudden influx of robins in the Bottom before Sula's return highlights a sense of unnatural disruption, moral chaos, and the community's deep discomfort with things beyond its control. The birds appear in such large, overwhelming numbers—both beautiful and destructive—reflecting Sula herself: a woman whose presence is essential yet unsettling. This arrival hints that the established social order in the Bottom is on the verge of collapse. On a larger scale, the robins illustrate how the community projects its fears onto natural signs, interpreting the world around them as a narrative that reinforces their anxieties about transgression, female independence, and the eerie.

    Evidence

    Morrison introduces the robin plague in the chapter titled "1937." She describes how the birds arrive in such swarms that they darken the sky and cover the ground with their bodies, creating a pervasive and unsettling stench. The residents of the Bottom see this infestation as a bad omen linked to Sula's return after a decade away. The timing is striking: the birds show up before Sula is even sighted, as if nature is heralding her arrival. When Sula later places Eva in a nursing home, takes Nel's husband Jude, and refuses to adopt any traditional wifely or maternal roles, the community looks back and interprets the robins as a prophecy. Morrison revisits this imagery in the townspeople's collective memory, where they associate Sula's so-called "evil" acts with the bird plague. This merges the natural event and the social outcast into a single symbol of chaos, against which the Bottom must ultimately—and tragically—define itself.

  • Water

    In Toni Morrison's Sula, water symbolizes both destruction and release, guiding characters toward death, transformation, and the unpredictable tides of fate. It illustrates the wild, uncontrollable aspects of life that the Bottom's community struggles to manage—forces that wash away both the innocent and the guilty. Water also reflects the novel's core conflict between stasis and change: the community clings to the familiar shore while some characters, especially Sula, dive into deeper, riskier waters. Ultimately, water represents Morrison's exploration of how Black lives in Medallion are influenced by historical, social, and elemental forces that remain indifferent to human desires or moral structures.

    Evidence

    Water's most devastating role in the story is highlighted by the drowning of Chicken Little. When Sula accidentally swings the small boy into the river and he vanishes beneath the surface, the moment crystallizes water as a source of irreversible loss—one that Sula and Nel witness in shocked silence and carry as a hidden burden for years. The river literally consumes innocence. Later, during the National Suicide Day flood at the novel's end, Morrison employs this symbol in a sweeping manner: residents of the Bottom, marching in grim celebration, fall into a tunnel excavation that collapses and fills with water, resulting in many drownings. The flood punishes not for sin, but for longing—the community's yearning for the jobs and prosperity that have always eluded them. Even Eva's memory of lying in the snow to save her children hints at water's opposite, implying that survival in this world requires navigating between the stillness of freezing and the overwhelming current. Together, these scenes portray water as the novel's relentless and unforgiving force.

05·Key quotes

The lines worth pulling for an essay.

“In a way, her strangeness, her naïveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination.”

This line comes from Toni Morrison's Sula (1973) and is spoken by the third-person omniscient narrator, likely in the chapter that explores Sula's character and inner thoughts, often linked to the "1937" section. The narrator examines Sula Peace's psychological makeup — her restlessness, social alienation, and her lifelong quest for a complementary soul, most vividly represented in her friendship with Nel Wright. Rather than framing Sula's "strangeness" as a moral failing, Morrison's narrator sees it as the result of a creative intelligence that lacks direction and structure. Without a proper outlet — whether artistic, domestic, or professional — Sula's imagination turned inward, becoming self-destructive. This quote is thematically important because it shifts our view of Sula from a villain to a tragic figure. Her "craving for the other half of her equation" highlights the novel's core theme of doubleness: Sula and Nel as two halves of a single person, each incomplete without the other. It also critiques the Bottom community and a broader patriarchal society that leaves talented Black women with "idle" imaginations — no canvas to express themselves — only to then blame them for the resulting chaos.

Omniscient Narrator · 1937 · Narrative reflection on Sula's inner life and psychological character

“Sula was wrong. Hell ain't things lasting forever. Hell is change.”

This line is spoken by Ajax (Albert Jacks) in Toni Morrison's Sula (1973) as he reflects on his philosophy during his relationship with Sula Peace. Ajax, a free spirit who avoids attachment and domestic life, offers a viewpoint that directly opposes Sula's earlier claim that hell is stasis—where things last forever. Instead, Ajax shares his hard-earned insight: hell is really about change. This clash of ideas is a key theme in the novel. Sula embraces change, reinvention, and the rejection of fixed identities, seeing permanence as a form of torment. In contrast, Ajax argues that instability and change bring their own suffering. Their exchange highlights Morrison's examination of how people find meaning and cope with pain differently, influenced by their experiences of race, gender, and freedom. It also hints at Ajax's eventual departure; he leaves because Sula starts to exhibit signs of wanting to possess and domesticate him, a shift he cannot accept. The quote captures one of the novel's central tensions: the conflicting implications of permanence versus impermanence in Black life and love.

Ajax (Albert Jacks) · to Sula Peace · 1939

“You are my best thing.”

In Toni Morrison's Sula (1973), a line is spoken by Paul D to Sethe—but hold on: that line actually belongs to Beloved. In Sula, a thematically similar moment of deep declaration comes from Paul D in Beloved, but within Sula, the most significant expressions of worth occur between Nel and Sula. The quote "You are my best thing" is indeed Paul D's words to Sethe in Beloved (1987), not in Sula. Confusing it with Sula is a common mix-up when discussing Morrison's works. In Beloved, Paul D delivers this line to Sethe near the end of the novel, after she has been shattered by the return and loss of her daughter, Beloved. Sethe, who views her children as her "best thing," is guided by Paul D to recognize her own value. This line serves as a powerful assertion of self-worth and survival, pushing back against the dehumanizing impact of slavery. It embodies Morrison's central theme: that enslaved individuals were systematically stripped of ownership over themselves, and reclaiming one's personhood is the truest form of freedom and love.

Paul D · to Sethe · Part Three · Near the novel's close, after Beloved has disappeared and Sethe has collapsed in grief

“I know what every colored woman in this country is doing… Dying. Just like me. But the difference is they dying like a stump. Me, I'm going down like one of those redwoods.”

This bold statement is made by Sula Peace near the end of Toni Morrison's novel Sula (1973) as she lies dying and speaks to her childhood best friend Nel Wright. After years of wandering, Sula has returned to the Bottom — the Black hillside community of Medallion, Ohio — and is now bedridden with a terminal illness. Instead of showing regret or seeking to make amends, she boldly embraces her individuality even in her final moments.

The quote is central to the novel's themes of Black womanhood, self-identity, and social conformity. Morrison presents two contrasting archetypes through Sula and Nel: Nel embodies the woman who conforms to societal expectations — marriage, motherhood, respectability — while Sula rejects all prescribed roles. In this moment, Sula acknowledges the shared suffering of Black women ("dying") but dismisses the passive and invisible way they endure it ("like a stump"). The redwood imagery transforms her death into something significant and impossible to overlook — a fall that demands attention. This passage urges readers to question whether conformity truly equates to survival or leads to a gradual erasure of identity, making it one of Morrison's most impactful reflections on the trade-offs between individuality and belonging.

Sula Peace · to Nel Wright · 1940 · Sula's deathbed conversation with Nel

“They were solitary little girls whose loneliness was so profound it intoxicated them and sent them stumbling into Technicolor visions.”

This line appears early in Toni Morrison's Sula (1973), in a chapter set in 1922, as the narrator reflects on the childhood friendship between Sula Peace and Nel Wright. Both girls grow up in the Bottom, a Black community in Ohio, each feeling isolated in her own way — Nel feels trapped by her mother's strict standards, while Sula is adrift in her household's chaotic freedom. Morrison's narrator points out that their shared loneliness doesn't diminish them; instead, it becomes an intoxicating force that fuels their rich, imaginative inner lives. The phrase "Technicolor visions" captures the vivid, almost hallucinatory nature of their private world, hinting that marginalization can paradoxically spark creativity and intensity. Thematically, this quote sets up the novel's main argument: the bond between Sula and Nel is not just friendship, but a symbiotic, almost mystical union shaped by their shared status as outsiders. It also hints at how each girl will harness that visionary energy differently as adults — Nel toward conformity and Sula toward radical self-invention — making their eventual split even more tragic. This line is central to Morrison's exploration of Black female interiority and the transformative power of female friendship.

Narrator (third-person omniscient) · 1922 · Introduction of Sula and Nel's childhood friendship in the Bottom

“Being good to somebody is just like being mean to somebody. Risky. You don't get nothing for it.”

This line is spoken by Nel Wright near the end of Toni Morrison's Sula (1973), as she considers the painful lessons her lifelong friendship with Sula Peace has taught her. Nel shares this bleak observation after years of striving to be the "good" one — the dutiful wife and respectable community member — only to realize that her moral choices have led to as much loss and grief as Sula's rebellious ones. The quote encapsulates one of the novel's key themes: the community-enforced divide of "good woman" vs. "bad woman" in the Bottom is a misleading and ultimately harmful idea. Morrison uses Nel's disillusionment to challenge the belief that virtue is always rewarded. Goodness, much like cruelty, makes a person vulnerable and guarantees no return. This line also resonates with Sula's philosophy of radical self-determination, implying that in death, Sula has ultimately won the argument the two women engaged in throughout their lives. It encourages readers to reflect on whether conforming to societal norms is a form of self-deception rather than true moral superiority.

Nel Wright · 1965 · Nel's reflection after visiting Eva Peace in the nursing home and confronting her grief over Sula's death

“She had clung to Nel as the closest thing to both an other and a self, only to discover that she and Nel were not one and the same thing.”

This reflection belongs to Sula Peace near the end of Toni Morrison's novel Sula (1973), as Sula lies dying and thinks about her lifelong bond with Nel Wright. The two girls grew up in the Bottom, a Black community in Ohio, forming a nearly symbiotic friendship that each used to define herself. Sula, who struggles with a stable sense of identity rooted in community or convention, viewed Nel as both a mirror ("self") and a distinct consciousness ("other")—the one relationship that gave her life coherence and meaning. The quote captures the heartbreaking moment Sula realizes the illusion at the core of that bond: she had blurred the line between self and other, believing in a unity that never truly existed. Thematically, this passage is key to Morrison's exploration of Black female identity, the limits of female friendship as a stand-in for individual identity, and the tragedy of two women who define themselves only in relation to one another. It also hints at Nel's similar realization at the novel's end, suggesting that both women paid a heavy price for never fully becoming themselves outside of that relationship.

Sula Peace (narrative free indirect discourse) · to internal reflection · 1940 · Sula on her deathbed, reflecting on her friendship with Nel

“Now Nel belonged to the town and all of its ways. She had given herself over to them, and the happiness that flooded her now was the happiness of belonging.”

This passage appears in Toni Morrison's Sula (1973) and is presented through the voice of a third-person omniscient narrator reflecting on Nel Wright after Sula Peace departs from Medallion for a decade. After marrying Jude Greene and settling into the rhythms of life in the Bottom, Nel finds a deep sense of contentment rooted in social conformity and a sense of belonging. The quote is thematically significant because it highlights the central conflict between Nel and Sula: Nel embodies a self defined by community, convention, and the approval of others, while Sula embodies radical individuality and self-creation outside of social norms. Morrison frames Nel's "happiness of belonging" with a quiet irony—it's genuine yet denotes a surrender of her selfhood. The phrase "given herself over" carries a sacrificial connotation, implying that belonging comes at the expense of personal autonomy. Subsequent events—Jude's abandonment and Nel's eventual reckoning at Sula's grave—compel Nel to question whether this communal identity was ever truly hers, transforming this moment of apparent fulfillment into one of the novel's most poignant and thematically rich turning points.

Narrator (third-person omniscient, reflecting Nel Wright) · 1937 · Nel's settled life in Medallion after Sula's departure

“It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

This haunting line closes Toni Morrison's Sula (1973) and is spoken by Nel Wright in the novel's final scene as she mourns her childhood best friend and lifelong foil, Sula Peace, years after Sula's death. Standing in the cemetery, Nel comes to realize that the grief she has carried for decades was not just for her ex-husband Jude, as she had thought, but for Sula herself. Her cry is portrayed not as a structured lament but as something boundless and formless—"circles and circles of sorrow"—indicating that true grief, particularly for a love that was unacknowledged or misnamed, cannot be contained or resolved. The passage encapsulates Morrison's key themes: the depth of female friendship, how Black women's emotional experiences are often suppressed or misdirected by societal expectations, and the sorrow of realizing the truth too late. The circular imagery also reflects the novel's non-linear structure and its exploration of time, community, and the cyclical nature of loss in the Bottom. This scene stands as one of the most powerful closing images of grief and belated recognition in American literature.

Nel Wright · 1965 (final dated chapter/epilogue) · Final scene — Nel at the cemetery, years after Sula's death

“She had no center, no speck around which to grow.”

This line is from Toni Morrison's Sula (1973) and is spoken by the novel's third-person omniscient narrator, offering a psychological insight into Sula Peace. It appears in the section that highlights Sula's adult life after she returns to the Bottom, illustrating how she fundamentally differs from her community. While Nel finds her identity through marriage, motherhood, and social norms, Sula lacks a stable moral or emotional foundation — she has no inner set of values or relationships that shape her identity. Instead of viewing this as a straightforward critique, Morrison presents it with nuance: Sula's lack of a center makes her both threatening and rebellious, yet also profoundly free. She embodies a kind of artist without a specific art form, channeling her energy inward in a destructive way. Thematically, this quote is central to the novel's examination of Black womanhood, the tension between individuality and community, and the price of forging one’s path outside of accepted roles. It challenges readers to consider whether having a "center" — conformity, belonging, stability — is a strength or a prison, and how society treats women who refuse to conform to others' expectations.

Narrator (third-person omniscient) · to Reader · 1937 · Psychological portrait of Sula Peace as an adult after her return to the Bottom

06·Study tools

Discussion, essay, and quiz prompts.

Discussion questions3 items ·

  • Discussion Questions: Sula by Toni Morrison

    Consider these questions as you reflect on and discuss Sula:

    1. Friendship & Identity: Sula and Nel are depicted as two halves of a whole. In what ways does their friendship influence each woman's sense of self? How do their identities shift when their bond breaks apart?
    1. Good vs. Evil: Morrison intentionally muddles conventional ideas of morality. How does the community of the Bottom label Sula as "evil"? Do you agree with this characterization? What does the novel imply about who has the authority to determine what is good or evil?
    1. Freedom & Conformity: Sula opts for radical self-determination, while Nel generally adheres to societal norms. What are the benefits and drawbacks of each choice? Which character do you believe ultimately experiences more freedom?
    1. The Bottom as a Character: How does Morrison portray the Black community of Medallion, Ohio — referred to as "the Bottom" — as more than just a backdrop? What does the neighborhood's history and eventual decline represent?
    1. Trauma & Survival: Various traumatic incidents (like Chicken Little's death, the plague of robins, and Eva's decisions) remain mostly unaddressed among the characters. How does silence operate within the novel? What does Morrison convey about how communities manage — or struggle to manage — shared trauma?
    1. Morrison's Narrative Structure: The novel is structured by years instead of conventional chapters. How does this chronological approach influence your reading experience? What does it reveal about time, memory, and history in the lives of Black women?
    1. The "Pariah" Figure: Sula is regarded as an outcast, yet her existence paradoxically enhances the community. How can someone be both harmful and essential? Can you think of other literary or real-world figures who fulfill a similar role?

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  • Discussion Questions: Sula by Toni Morrison

    Consider these questions as you reflect on and discuss Sula:

    1. Friendship & Identity: Sula and Nel seem to represent two halves of a whole. In what ways does their friendship influence each woman's understanding of herself? What changes occur in their identities when the friendship falls apart?
    1. Good vs. Evil: Morrison avoids simplistic moral labels throughout the novel. How does the community of the Bottom label Sula as "evil"? Do you agree with this characterization? What insights does the novel offer about how communities create ideas of good and evil?
    1. Freedom & Conformity: Sula opts for radical self-invention and rejects the expectations placed on Black women during her time. What are the consequences and freedoms that come with her choices? How does Nel's more traditional path compare?
    1. Trauma & Survival: Several traumatic incidents — such as Chicken Little's death and Eva's burning of Plum — are approached with notable emotional distance. How does Morrison's narrative style influence the reader's reaction to trauma? What does this imply about how the characters (and the community) deal with pain?
    1. Place & Community: The Bottom itself acts like a character in the novel. How does Morrison utilize this setting to examine the connection between a community and the individuals who either challenge or uphold it?
    1. The "Deweys" and Otherness: Minor characters like the Deweys and Shadrack exist on the outskirts of the Bottom's society. What role do these figures play in the novel's discussion of identity, war, and belonging?
    1. Morrison's Title: The novel is named after Sula, yet Nel's viewpoint is also crucial. Why do you think Morrison chose to call the book Sula? What does this decision highlight about the themes of the story?

    ap_lit · common_core_ela · ib_lang_lit · aqa

  • Discussion Questions: Sula by Toni Morrison

    Consider the following questions as you reflect on and discuss Sula:

    1. Friendship & Identity: How does the relationship between Sula and Nel influence each woman's sense of self? In what ways do they embody two halves of a whole, and what does their eventual estrangement reveal about identity and independence?
    1. Good vs. Evil: Morrison avoids labeling Sula as simply "evil." How does the novel challenge traditional moral categories? What does it mean to live outside the community's moral framework, as Sula does?
    1. Community & Belonging: The Bottom operates with its own rituals, myths, and judgments. How does the community act almost like a character in its own right? What does it gain — or lose — by designating Sula as its scapegoat?
    1. Gender & Freedom: Sula rejects the conventional roles assigned to Black women in her time and place. How does the novel depict the costs and freedoms of her choices? Is Sula a feminist figure, a tragic one, or both?
    1. Memory & Trauma: Several characters in the novel bear deep, unspoken traumas (e.g., Hannah's death, Chicken Little's drowning, Plum's fate). How does Morrison utilize silence and memory to explore how trauma influences lives and relationships?
    1. The Deweys & Marginalization: The three boys known as "the deweys" lose their individual identities completely. What might Morrison be conveying about how society treats those labeled as "other" or unfit?
    1. The Novel's Ending: Nel's final cry — "We was girls together" — is one of the most renowned lines in American literature. What does this moment reveal about grief, love, and the essence of female friendship? Why do you think Morrison chose to conclude the novel this way?

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Essay prompts3 items ·

  • Essay Prompt: Sula by Toni Morrison

    Prompt:

    In Sula, Toni Morrison explores the complexities of morality by depicting Nel and Sula as two halves of a single identity. Write a detailed argumentative essay where you argue that Morrison employs the contrasting yet complementary relationship between Nel Wright and Sula Peace to critique the societal and cultural forces—such as race, gender, and community expectations—that hinder Black women from fully realizing their identities.

    In your essay, be sure to:

    • Present a clear, defensible thesis about how the Nel–Sula relationship critiques social constraints.
    • Support your argument with specific textual evidence (including scenes, dialogue, imagery, and/or narrative structure).
    • Analyze how Morrison's stylistic choices—like nonlinear timelines, dual perspectives, or the symbolic significance of the Bottom—strengthen your thesis.
    • Recognize and address a counterargument (for instance, that Sula embodies selfishness instead of liberation, or that Nel exemplifies commendable conformity rather than oppression).
    • Conclude by contemplating the broader implications of Morrison's perspective on identity, freedom, and community.

    Suggested length: 4–6 pages (approximately 1,000–1,500 words)

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  • Essay Prompt: Sula by Toni Morrison

    Prompt:

    In Sula, Toni Morrison explores the intricate relationship between Sula Peace and Nel Wright, using it as a lens to examine identity, freedom, and social expectations. In a well-organized essay, discuss how Morrison contrasts the choices made by Sula and Nel to highlight the constraints placed on Black women by their community in Medallion, Ohio. Support your argument with specific examples from the text — including character development, symbolism, and the structure of the narrative.

    Guidance for Students:

    • Craft a clear, arguable thesis that moves beyond a simple plot summary and takes a stance on Morrison's critique.
    • Include at least three pieces of textual evidence, analyzing how each one bolsters your argument.
    • Reflect on how Morrison's depiction of the Bottom as a setting adds depth to the social pressures the characters face.
    • Consider a counterargument: Does the novel imply that Sula's pursuit of freedom is completely liberating, or are there hidden costs associated with it?

    Suggested length: 4–6 paragraphs

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  • Essay Prompt: Sula by Toni Morrison

    Prompt:

    In Sula, Toni Morrison explores the intricate relationship between Sula Peace and Nel Wright as a mirror reflecting how identity, morality, and female selfhood are shaped within a Black community.

    Write a well-structured essay arguing how Morrison contrasts and complements the characters of Sula and Nel to question traditional notions of "good" and "evil." Consider how the novel stops short of condemning either woman and what this moral ambiguity indicates about the social influences — such as race, gender, and community expectations — that shape personal identity in the Bottom.

    Be sure to:

    • Present a clear, defensible thesis regarding the novel's exploration of moral ambiguity and identity.
    • Support your argument with specific examples from the text (including direct quotes and paraphrasing).
    • Analyze Morrison's narrative techniques, including point of view, structure, and symbolism (e.g., the birthmark, fire, water).
    • Discuss how the historical and social context of a post-WWI Black Midwestern community impacts your interpretation.

    Suggested length: 4–6 paragraphs (AP-style) or 5–7 pages (college-level)

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Quiz questions2 items ·

  • Which author wrote the novel Sula (1973)?

    • A) Alice Walker
    • B) Zora Neale Hurston
    • C) Toni Morrison
    • D) Maya Angelou

    Correct Answer: C) Toni Morrison

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  • *Quiz Question — Sula by Toni Morrison*

    Which character does Sula Peace watch die without intervening, an act that deeply affects her relationship with Nel Wright throughout the novel?

    A) Chicken Little B) Plum Peace C) Eva Peace D) Ajax

    Correct Answer: A) Chicken Little

    Explanation: Sula accidentally swings the young boy Chicken Little into the river, leading to his drowning. Both Sula and Nel witness this tragic event, and their mutual silence about it becomes a defining — and ultimately destructive — factor in their friendship.

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Teacher handout2 items ·

  • Teacher Handout: Sula by Toni Morrison

    Mini-Lecture: Context & Overview

    Author: Toni Morrison (1931–2019) Published: 1973 Genre: Literary Fiction / Novel

    Sula is Morrison's second novel, set in the fictional Black community of "the Bottom" in Medallion, Ohio. The story unfolds from around 1919 to 1965 and revolves around the intricate, lifelong friendship between Sula Peace and Nel Wright. Through their bond, Morrison explores themes of identity, female autonomy, community dynamics, morality, and the essence of friendship itself.

    Key Vocabulary

    | Term | Definition | |---|---| | Duality | The existence of two opposing qualities or forces (e.g., good/evil, freedom/conformity) | | Pariah | A person who is socially rejected by their community | | Autonomy | The state of self-governance; independence | | Birthmark | The rose-shaped birthmark above Sula's eye, serving as a significant symbol interpreted in various ways by different characters | | The Bottom | The ironically named hilltop Black neighborhood where the story takes place | | National Suicide Day | An annual ritual by Shadrack; a motif that examines trauma, order, and community connection | | Foil | A character whose traits contrast with another's, emphasizing important differences (Nel and Sula act as foils) |

    Thematic Framework

    Use these themes to guide discussions and written assignments:

    1. Female Friendship & Identity
    • In what ways do Nel and Sula define their identities through and against each other?
    • Morrison suggests that the two women represent "two sides of the same person."
    1. Good vs. Evil / Moral Ambiguity
    • The Bottom community considers Sula "evil," yet her presence paradoxically brings them together.
    • Prompt students with: Who determines what is good or evil, and based on what criteria?
    1. Race, Gender, and Community
    • Sula challenges the societal expectations placed on Black women during mid-20th-century America.
    • The Bottom itself acts almost as a character — how does this community both nurture and stifle its members?
    1. Trauma and Survival
    • Characters like Shadrack (a WWI veteran) and Eva Peace bear deep scars. How does each find a way to cope?
    1. Freedom vs. Belonging
    • Sula opts for radical freedom, while Nel conforms. What does each woman gain and sacrifice in their choices?

    Scaffolded Reading Prompts

    Utilize these prompts progressively as students read through the novel.

    Part 1 — "1919" through "1922"

    • What insights does the origin story of "the Bottom" provide about racial power dynamics?
    • How are Sula and Nel presented as complementary figures?

    Part 2 — "1923" through "1937"

    • Analyze the scene where Sula and Nel witness Chicken Little drowning. What do each girl's reactions reveal about her character?
    • How does Eva's choice regarding Plum demonstrate Morrison's nuanced portrayal of motherhood?

    Part 3 — "1939" through "1965"

    • How does the community's perception of Sula shift after her return, and what does this indicate about the treatment of the "other"?
    • What does Nel's final realization at the end of the novel, "We was girls together," signify?

    Close Reading Focus: The Birthmark

    Sula's birthmark is described differently by various characters:

    • Jude perceives it as a copperhead snake.
    • Nel sees it as a stemmed rose.
    • Shadrack interprets it as Hannah's ashes.

    Class discussion prompt: What does each interpretation reveal about the observer rather than Sula herself? How does Morrison use this symbol to comment on perception and identity?

    Assessment Connections

    • Essay: Make a case for whether Sula or Nel achieves greater self-actualization by the novel's conclusion.
    • Discussion: Can Sula be classified as a villain, a hero, or is she something that Morrison intentionally leaves undefined?
    • Creative: Compose a journal entry from Nel's perspective on the day Sula comes back to the Bottom.

    Prepared for classroom use — aligned with AP Literature & Composition and IB Language & Literature curricula.

    ap_lit · ib_lang_lit · common_core_ela

  • Teacher Handout: Sula by Toni Morrison

    Mini-Lecture: Context & Overview

    Toni Morrison released Sula in 1973. The story takes place in the fictional Black community of the Bottom in Medallion, Ohio, spanning from 1919 to 1965. It follows the lives of two Black women — Sula Peace and Nel Wright — whose friendship serves as the emotional and moral backbone of the narrative. Morrison challenges traditional notions of good and evil, community, gender, and identity.

    Key Vocabulary

    | Term | Definition / Relevance to the Novel | |---|---| | Duality | The existence of opposing forces (e.g., good/evil, self/other); reflected in Sula and Nel's relationship | | The Bottom | The ironically named hilltop community where Black residents were settled; represents racial injustice and inversion | | Pariah | An outcast; Sula is regarded as one by her community upon her return | | Autonomy | Self-governance; Sula's radical independence is key to her character | | Communal Identity | The shared values and behaviors that shape the Bottom as a community | | Morrison's "Unspeakable" | Morrison's style of addressing traumatic events indirectly rather than stating them outright | | Eva's Peace | Sula's grandmother; her controlling matriarchy contrasts with Sula's quest for independence | | National Suicide Day | Shadrack's ritual; a darkly humorous community tradition that underpins the novel's exploration of death |

    Scaffolded Discussion Prompts

    Use these in sequence to guide students from comprehension → analysis → evaluation.

    Level 1 — Comprehension

    1. Who are the main characters, and what is their relationship to one another?
    2. What is "the Bottom," and how did the Black community come to inhabit it?
    3. What occurs when Sula returns to Medallion after a ten-year absence?

    Level 2 — Analysis

    1. How does Morrison utilize the friendship between Sula and Nel to illustrate the concept of one person serving as another's "other self"? Provide specific examples.
    2. What does Sula's birthmark (the stemmed rose / Hannah's ashes) signify, and how do various characters perceive it?
    3. How does Morrison challenge traditional portrayals of "good woman" and "bad woman"? Who can be considered truly moral in this narrative?

    Level 3 — Evaluation & Synthesis

    1. Morrison has expressed a desire to portray a "new kind of Black woman" — one who is neither a victim nor a saint. Does Sula embody that figure? Why or why not?
    2. Is the community of the Bottom a villain, a victim, or something more nuanced? Justify your viewpoint.
    3. Nel's final exclamation — "We was girls together" — concludes the novel. What does this moment reveal about identity, loss, and the essence of female friendship?

    Key Themes to Track

    • Female friendship & selfhood — identity defined through and in contrast to another
    • Good vs. evil (and their interdependence) — the Bottom requires Sula to understand its own virtue
    • Race, place & community — the Bottom as both a refuge and a confinement
    • Death & survival — Chicken Little, Eva, the Plague of robins, National Suicide Day
    • Unconventional womanhood — Sula as an experimental self in a society that punishes it

    Close Reading Passage (Suggested)

    > "She had no center, no speck around which to grow… She was completely free of ambition, with no affection for money, property or things, no greed, no desire to command attention or compliments — no ego. For that reason she felt no compulsion to verify herself — be consistent with herself." > — Sula, Toni Morrison

    Discussion: Is Morrison portraying Sula's lack of ego as a form of freedom or a sense of emptiness? How does this passage challenge Western ideals of selfhood?

    Assessment Connections

    • Essay: Analyze how Morrison uses the Sula/Nel dynamic to argue that identity is relational rather than isolated.
    • Socratic Seminar: "Sula is the most moral character in the novel." Agree or disagree.
    • Creative Response: Rewrite the final scene from Sula's perspective.

    ap_lit · ib_lang_lit · common_core_ela · african_american_lit

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