While Langhston Hughes authors this poem, A Dream Deferred, it can easily be interpreted as Toni

Morrison's description of Nel and her life of sorrow and dissatisfaction. Sula and Nel, the protagonists

in Toni Morrison's Sula, are each the only daughters of mothers whose distance leaves the young

girls with dreams to erase this solitude and loneliness. There is no question that Sula alleviates this

aloneness with a lascivious and experimental life, "I'm going down like one of those redwoods. I sure

did live in this world"(143). Nel, however, for the most part, fails terribly at realizing her dreams and

experiencing a happy existence. Compromising her individuality, her emotional stability, and her

dreams mark Nel's banal and unfulfilling life.

Early in Nel's life during a trip to New Orleans, she watches as her mother is humiliated by a train's

white, racist conductor; she watches the indignity of her mother's having to squat in an open field

right of her, in the air, just out of view. She could not see it, but she knew exactly what it looked like.

is frightened as she was when she watched her mother's humiliation and submissiveness and made

happiness while her closest friend experienced individuality and joy. After visiting Sula's grave, Nel

cannot recognize herself, "She didn't even know she had a neck until Jude remarked on it, or that her

itself"(81) and that "he wanted someone to care about his hurt"(82) will become hers, "She seemed

"me-ness", "The two of them together would make one Jude"(83).

urinate while white train passengers gaze; and she watches her mother's shame at her own Creole

and an energy in Nel. Her emotions intensify as she makes a declaration to never be her mother, to

resulting in a new found complacency, "Nel, who regarded the oppressive neatness of her home with

she can sense that it still exists although she cannot see it. It is a "gray dirty ball" with a little

Some common words found in the essay are:
Toni Morrison, Morrison's Sula, Jude Nel, Twenty-five Sula's, Initially Nel's, Sula Nel, , Me28 Figuring, Toni Morrison's, Medallion Nel, dream deferred, sula nel, leaves mud, odor evaporated leaves, dry nasty throat, jude's wife, nel's dream, smell overripe, leaves stirred, toni morrison, dirty ball, gray dirty ball, leaves mud settled, overripe green, evaporated leaves mud,
Approximate Word count = 1121
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)