Sula Peace is one of the protagonists of the novel. She is born to a very unstable family and is from that moment treated differently in "the Bottom", the black section of Medallion, Ohio. From the time that she was very young, right up until her death, Sula denied her true emotions. She refuted her need for love and did not acknowledge her family and its impact on her.

Sula's need for love was first expressed in the beginning of the novel when she is twelve years old. Not realizing that Sula is nearby, Hannah, her mother says: "I love Sula. I just don't like her." Sula "only heard Hannah's words, and the pronouncement sent her flying up the stairs. In bewilderment, she stood at the window fingering the curtain edge, aware of a sting in her eye."(57) Sula did not show that her mother's words truly hurt her. She ran away

Ten years later when Sula returned to The Bottom, she slept with Jude. Jude ashamed of what he did left Nel and their three children on a one-way ticket to Detroit. Nel wished that she could express the pain she felt, but all that she could think of was the way women cried at Chicken Little's funeral, and how she wanted to cry like that also. "Nel waited, Waited for the oldest cry. A scream not for others, not in sympathy for a burnt child, or a dead father, but a deeply personal cry for one's own pain. A loud strident: "Why me?" She waited. (108) Nel ran away from her emotions because she wanted to deal with them the way most people deal with them, by crying. She did not want to face her own personal emotions and her own private way of dealing with Jude's departure and the loss of her best friend.

In 1927 when Nel married Jude Greene, she did not marry out of love. Nel married Jude because she thought it was the proper social thing to do, to accept a marriage proposal. Just as her mother had taught her, Nel wants to settle down and gain the respect that comes with marriage. "She seemed receptive but hardly anxious" (82). It was a sad reason to get married. She wanted to run from her mother's restrictions into her own life. Nel like Sula began to run from her problems.

Sula's lack of love continued in 1923 when she turned thirteen. She was changing into a woman, but the words of her mother were still with her. In the summer when the entire community began to can fruits and vegetables for the winter, Hannah began to do the same. She lit a fire, which in turn caught her dress and soon engulfed her in flames. Sula sat on the back porch simply looking on as her mother burned. Sula continued to keep standing as Eva, her handicapped grandmother dived out the second floor window in an effort to save Hannah. When Eva told people that she saw Sula standing by and not even trying

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1272
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)