Sula

A detailed Summary of Sula

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And looked down on as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Thought as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should every come back.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

And that has made all the difference.

"Two roads diverged and I took the one less traveled and that has made all the difference." This line in the poem could be applied to the two paths of life, the first path being conforming to the society and the other, becoming an individual. The path of society may be an easier one for people to travel through. It is a way of acceptance, one where the rules and regulations already exist and one just has to follow them. The path of

This close-knit relationship breaks down, however, when Nel elects to recreate a similar relationship with a man instead of maintaining this one with Sula. Instead of Nel and Sula being joined to create one person, Nel and Jude "together would make one Jude." ("Sula" p. 83). Both Nel and Sula's conjoined personalities return to what they once were - individual. Both individual personalities, thus, become more assertive because Nel felt she needed to be "needed by someone who saw her singly." ("Sula" p .84). After the separation, Nel becomes sexually repressed, her life becomes drab, and she struggles harder to be the conventional woman she once was as a child. Nel "settles for a safe, unimaginative life and thrives on community approval, the prize she wins through unremitting efforts to win respectability." On the other hand, Sula becomes unsettled, disordered, and adventurous when Nel's imposition of orderliness and restraint is no longer apparent. Without Nel, Morrison makes clear, Sula no longer has a complete self: 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" p.119) Sula then has frequent sex, becomes an outsider, and craves "for the other half of her equation." ("Sula" p.121). Without each other, both women are incomplete souls. The author demonstrates through these relationships with men that sexual relationships destroy the combined relationship of Nel and Sula and fragments their individual identity where friendship creates a whole person out of the two parts. Nel and Sula lose their common identity when men come along and their closeness can only be revived if they can recover their common identity. Nel and Sula gain a bond which no married couple can ever achieve in this novel - one that creates one person out of two individual selves. The loss of this bond leaves each woman completely fragmented and leads to Sula's death. Nel's recognizes this fact at the end of the novel: "All the time, all the 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 as though explaining something. "O Lord, Sula," she cried, "girl, girl, girlgirlgirl." ("Sula" p.174). Nel and Sula were not just girls together at the same time, they were girls together as one. Nel explains this to herself in this passage because it is what she never understood before. Nel misses the oneness she felt with Sula, not the relationship she never could recreate with Jude. Nel's recognition of this lost bond reunites the two women on a spiritual level and reconciles their lost self. The repetition and conjunction of the word "girl" allows Nel and Sula to become what they once were - one girl.

the individual, however, is much less accepted and more difficult. It is one where you make your own decisions and choices. Often times however, conflicts occur between people living their lives in terms of society's standards, and the others who are their own individual person. "Sula" tells a fractured story about the lives of two women, Sula Peace and Nel Wright, who are on seemingly opposite paths. While Sula seeks to chart her own destiny, Nel strives to maintain the appearance of having achieved a comfortable middle-class life. One way this female dichotomy manifests in the story is through sexual identity: Sula is as sexually active as her promiscuous mother had been, while Nel remains in a monogamous marriage. One day, Nel returns home and discovers Sula and Nel's husband in bed. Hurt and confused, she refuses to continue the friendship she has had with Sula since childhood. Sula, an independent woman who has never been familiar with the arrangement of marriage or the possessiveness it fosters, is unable to understand Nel's pained response. Her

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Approximate Word count = 3596
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English