Sula: Analysis of Major Characters
"Sula: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the complex relationships and struggles of characters in Toni Morrison's novel "Sula." The narrative centers on Sula Peace, who stands out from the women of Medallion for her fearless approach to life, embracing both pain and pleasure. Her friendship with Nel Wright illustrates contrasting responses to societal expectations; while Nel seeks stability through marriage, Sula's independence leads her to become an outcast after returning to Medallion. The character of Eva Peace, Sula’s grandmother, embodies resilience amidst tragedy, yet her harshness impacts her family dynamics.
Other significant figures include Shadrack, a traumatized veteran who introduces the concept of National Suicide Day, and Jude Greene, whose relationships with Nel and Sula highlight the complexities of love and betrayal. The Deweys, Eva’s adopted sons, and the self-indulgent Hannah Peace further enrich the narrative, showcasing the varied responses to love and survival in a community marked by strife and loss. Through these characters, the story explores themes of friendship, identity, and the burdens of legacy, making it a profound reflection on personal and social challenges.
Sula: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Toni Morrison
First published: 1973
Genre: Novel
Locale: Medallion, Ohio
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: 1919–1965
Sula Peace, the protagonist. Sula is different from the other women of the town of Medallion, as willing to feel pain and pleasure as she is to give them. Having lost her best friend, Nel, she looks in vain for friendship in men. After leaving Medallion to go to college and to travel, she returns as a pariah and is blamed for all the town's misfortunes. She fuels the town's hatred of her by sleeping with married men and with white men. Contrary to the beliefs of the townspeople, who believe that a brighter day will dawn after she dies, her death is followed by a severe ice storm and the catastrophic cave-in of the tunnel.
Nel Wright, Sula's best friend. Reared in an oppressive household, she decides to be her own person, not her mother's daughter. Nel marries the handsome Jude Greene because she wants to be needed. She blames Sula when he leaves her, because Sula seduced Jude. Unlike Sula, she fears change, so much so that she refuses to buy a car. Long after her marriage ends, Nel realizes that she has been mourning for Sula, not for Jude.
Eva Peace, the physically disabled matriarch of the Peace family, Sula's grandmother. She is so preoccupied with her hatred of her womanizing husband and with keeping herself and her family alive that she is unable to show much love to her children. When her husband leaves her, she leaves her children with a neighbor, returns eighteen months later with only one leg, and builds a new home. Her arrogance is apparent in the fancy shoe she wears on her one foot. Strangely, she murders her own son and almost bleeds to death trying to save her daughter.
Shadrack, a shell-shocked veteran of World War I. When he returns to Medallion after the war, he earns the reputation of town character, spending most of his time catching fish to sell, cussing people, acting obscenely, and getting drunk. In 1920, he proclaims January 3 as National Suicide Day, and he commemorates the event every year thereafter by carrying around a hangman's noose and ringing a cowbell. On January 3, 1941, he leads a parade of townspeople to the tunnel, where many of them die in a cave-in.
The Deweys, Eva's three adopted sons, unrelated to one another. Surly and unpredictable, they resist all attempts to distinguish among them. They speak with one voice and think with one mind. After Eva is sent to a nursing home, they live wherever they want. Their bodies are never found after the tunnel collapses.
Hannah Peace, Sula's beautiful and self-indulgent mother. After the death of her husband, Rekus, she takes a series of lovers because of her need to be touched every day. As a result, she is despised by all the women in town. She teaches Sula that sex is pleasurable but otherwise unremarkable. Hannah burns to death while trying to light the yard fire. Eva throws herself out a window trying to save her.
Tar Baby, an alcoholic half-white man who rents a room from Eva. He is arrested for causing a wreck involving the mayor's niece. Tar Baby dies in the cave-in.
Jude Greene, Nel's handsome husband and Sula's lover. Frustrated in his attempt to find work building the New River Road, he marries Nel in his determination to take on a man's role. Even after ten years of marriage, he still feels belittled by white society. Jude leaves Nel shortly after she catches him making love to Sula.
Albert Jacks, called Ajax, the one true love in Sula's life, the son of a conjure woman and nine years Sula's senior. Ajax loves women, airplanes, and hot baths. He is the only one of Sula's lovers who actually talks to and listens to her. He senses that she is changing from an unpredictable, spontaneous, and untraditional woman to a more traditional one like those he has previously left. After he is arraigned for arguing with the police, he goes to an air show in Dayton, Ohio, and walks out of Sula's life forever.
Helene Wright, Nel's domineering mother. She moves to Medallion to get as far away as possible from the New Orleans brothel where she was born. In the absence of a Catholic church, she joins the most conservative black church in town and spends her time forcing her daughter to be obedient and polite. Helene saves her own life by refusing to march in the parade to the tunnel.
Plum Peace, Eva's shiftless, spoiled son, to whom she had planned to bequeath everything. He almost dies as a baby because he shoves pebbles up his anus. When he returns to Medallion after serving in World War I, he steals, takes trips to Cincinnati, uses heroin, and sleeps for days in his room with the record player going. Believing that Plum cannot live as a man, Eva sets him afire while he is asleep.