The introduction to the novel starts off towards the end of slave times (the late 1800's). A good white farmer promised freedom and a piece of bottom land to his slave if he would perform some very difficult chores (pg. 5). The slave performs the chores and the White farmer tricks the slave into wanting the hilly land, which he gets. The hilly land is the worst land possible to have. Where Planting was backbreaking, where the soil slid down and washed away the seeds, and where the wind lingered all through the winter (pg. 5). Getting the worst land possible fit the slave's role perfectly. Because he was a slave he always got the worst end of everything and by getting the so-called "bottom land" he got the worst end of the deal.

Throughout the next few years the town of Medallion was formed. It was a poor town but the people who lived there made the best of it. Their ro

Because of what he witnessed he realizes how much death is random and unpredictable, therefore he institutes a holiday every January 3rd. This holiday is called National Suicide Day. "This was their only chance to kill themselves or each other."(Pg. 14). The first year the townspeople were kind-of scared and thought Shadrack was crazy for doing it. But in the following years after the town accepted it and went along with it. This is the way the town saw Shadrack. This is the role he assumed.

Nel's role in life is that she is Sula's best friend. From when they are young, all the way up to when they are adults, and even after Sula passes away. Nel accepted the way of life in the bottom. She marries Jude, raises a family, another person in the Medallion community.

sbands who cheated on them, their marriages get better.

Sula is the person who this novel is named after. She is a very free-spirited young African-American woman. She looks at the bottom and top of the social ladder as the same. Sula says, "You say I'm a woman and colored. Ain't that the same as being a man?" (Pg. 142). She also says, "I don't know everything, I just do everything." (Pg. 143). She is the only person in the story who rejects the life given to them in the bottom. Her life takes a different route and she goes to college and lives in the city for a while. After ten years she comes back to Medallion and lives out the role of being a rebel and temptress. She also becomes the town

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Approximate Word count = 988
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)