Why does sula leave the bottom

It appears when Nel and Sula have their falling out, and breaks apart when Nel finally forgives Sula. The color of the ball, gray, represents the shades of gray that each woman is made up of. Eva stares at Sula in more or less the same way she stared at BoyBoy the last time she saw him—with pure hatred. The death of Chicken Little results in a closed casket funeral Chicken died by water, Hannah died by fire.

The elderly matriarch of the Peace family, Eva Peace is an impressive, capable, and fiercely devoted mother and grandmother. As a young woman, she marries BoyBoy, but after BoyBoy leaves her, she throws herself into the task of raising her three children, Plum, Pearl, and Hannah.

Sula is narrated in the past tense with an occasional present-tense paragraph narrated by Nel, one of the two main characters. By Toni Morrison And it turns out that her name has several meanings that are pretty appropriate for her character. Peace is, well peace. After the first appearance of the boys, fatal events begin to proliferate in the Peace family. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search.

Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Essay What is the purpose of Sula? Ben Davis May 8, What is the purpose of Sula? Nel's husband, Jude, is intrigued by Sula's unpredictability and odd philosophy about life. When Nel discovers Sula and Jude naked together, she realizes that her marriage is destroyed and that Sula has irreparably ruptured their friendship. Jude abandons his marriage, and Nel suffers deep, emotional trauma over the loss of both her husband and her best friend.

Nel's relationships with both Sula and Jude always meant, for her, a fusion of each of these strong, independent personalities with her own timid, less-secure identity; with Sula — and with Jude — Nel was able to create one significant person. After the breakup of her marriage to Jude and her friendship with Sula, she is emotionally shattered and, for a while, seems to be on the verge of emotional despair.

In contrast to the other people living in the Bottom, Sula is oblivious to the omens and superstitions that accompany her return. Traditionally, robins are thought of as birds of harmony, bringing peace and the rush of new life and fresh air. Ironically, however, when they are associated with Sula's return, they symbolize her perceived threat to the black community's psychological identity even as their droppings encrust everyone's shoes and the streets of the Bottom.

What was once good — robins — has become evil — and all because of Sula. Like the defecating robins, Sula threatens the community's well-being. The girl who left town ten years ago has returned, and her peculiar ways are no longer adolescent whims.

They seem like sinister oddities. In her vicious confrontation with Eva, Sula pulls no punches; her body language positions her on the offensive, and she turns her buttocks to the aging Eva, spitting fire and water at her grandmother's call for pregnancy and blissful "settling.

By refusing to settle for the traditional black woman's stereotypical lot in life — wife, mother, and caretaker — Sula inspires Eva's wrath and the community's rancor. Unaffected by the community's condemnation, however, Sula does the unthinkable: She commits Eva to a nursing home, an unacceptable option in the black community.

Why has Sula returned to the Bottom? She has returned out of boredom with the many big cities she traveled through, and because she craves Nel — "the other half of her equation" — and yearns for their girlhood's soulful friendship.

Neither Nel nor Sula, however, are girls any longer. Nel is a solid, dependable wife and does what is expected of her. Sula is fluid, spontaneous, and instinctual. On the surface, they seemingly compliment each other and support one another, but Nel senses the atmospheric changes that swept in with Sula even though their friendship seems to bond them as one.

Everything you need for every book you read. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sula , which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Old folks dance with children, and everyone seems to be drinking. Nel , her daughter, has just been married, and Helene has invested all her strength and intelligence in planning the wedding.

The last chapter ended on a note of weary finality: Eva giving up after losing two of her children. Active Themes. Love and Sexuality. Related Quotes with Explanations. Helene has arranged for her daughter to be married in an actual church—a very expensive wedding, and thus rare in the Bottom.

The groom is a handsome, popular man named Jude Greene. The New River Road is like a will-o-the-wisp, always tempting the people of the Bottom to run toward a supposedly bright future. Suffering and Community Identity. The narrator continues to describe Jude Greene. Jude longs for a challenging physical job—he wants to work on the New River Road.

He also craves the camaraderie of working alongside people who are like him. We see the extent to which the New River Road has gripped the minds and souls of the people of the Bottom: Jude is willing to essentially base his life around the road.