Who is the antagonist in Sula?

Protagonist and Antagonist However, in the eyes of Eva, the only person besides Nel and Sula who knows the truth about Chicken Little’s death, Nel is the antagonist who sat by and watched as Sula threw Chicken into the water.

How did Nel and Sula meet?

Sula and Nel become friends very suddenly when they are twelve, for reasons neither of them can describe. They become friends when a group of Irish immigrants come to Medallion to bully the black schoolchildren.

Who is the true protagonist in Sula?

Nel

How does Sula and Ajax relationship end?

It is Ajax who catcalls to Nel Wright and Sula Peace when they’re still young girls, and years later, Ajax begins an affair with Sula. While these qualities attract Sula to Ajax at first, it’s strongly implied that their relationship ends when Ajax gives in to his desire for independence, and leaves the Bottom.

What happens to Hannah in Sula?

Moreover, Hannah died by fire just as Plum did. Eva’s attempt to symbolically lay the blame for Hannah’s death on Sula could be an attempt to deal with her own secret guilt for Hannah’s death as well as the guilt for Plum’s. She condemns Sula for standing motionless while Hannah died by fire.

What happened to Eva’s leg in Sula?

Her leg was amputated due to frostbite. She has lost feeling in it. She sold it.

Who Killed Chicken Little in Sula?

Chicken died by water, Hannah died by fire. Nel watches Chicken die by drowning, according to Eva at the later scene in the nursing home (168). Sula watches Hannah die in flames (78).

Who leaves the bottom and comes back 10 years later?

Shortly after Nel’s wedding, Sula leaves the Bottom for a period of 10 years.

What does Shadrack represent in Sula?

Sula and Shadrack represent the evil (or at least unacceptable) in the traditional good/evil binary that the Bottom’s community upholds. Both Sula and Shadrack face ostracization because of the negativity that is attached to them.

Why does Sula return to the bottom?

Earlier that same day, the Bottom suffered a bizarre plague of robins, and because of the townspeople’s long concern with signs of nature as representing omens, they see Sula’s return as a portent of evil, a parallel to the plague of robins.

What is the irony of the name bottom in Sula?

In Toni Morrison’s Sula, the neighborhood known as “The Bottom” is ironically the hilly land in the area of town. The white residents claimed the more hospitable valley surrounding The Bottom. They tell the black residents that The Bottom is closer to the sky and therefore closer to God and Heaven.

Who is Helene in Sula?

Sula Peace

How does Sula die in Sula?

Just before dying, Sula remembers the word “Always” which Shadrack spoke to her the day Chicken drowned. Sula dies painlessly. When she stops breathing and her heart stops beating the first thing she thinks is to tell Nel that death does not hurt.

Did Sula kill Eva?

Sula threatens to kill Eva in the same way Eva killed Plum. Frightened, Eva keeps her door locked at night. Not long afterward, Sula becomes Eva’s guardian and commits her to a nursing home, shocking the entire community.

What is the theme of Sula by Toni Morrison?

The major theme of Sula is good versus evil. The question of right versus wrong in the novel can be traced all the way back to the childhoods of Sula and Nel. As the two girls played with Chicken Little, a young child from the neighborhood, Sula was swinging him around by his hands.

What genre is Sula?

African-American literature

What does Ajax call Sula and Nel that delights them?

One day he calls Sula and Nel “pig meat” (which is apparently some sort of sexual reference), and this “delights” the girls (1922.3). So, “it was in dreams that the two girls had first met” (1922.6).

Who is Sula’s love?

After many years, Sula sleeps with Jude Greene, Nel’s own husband. Sula loves Nel Wright: she’s defended Nel from bullies, cheered Nel up when she’s sad, celebrated Nel’s wedding, etc.

What is the setting of Sula?

Sula is set in the Bottom, and most of the story takes place in the first half of the twentieth century. The residents of the Bottom are African-American and have to deal with constant discrimination and racism (check out our guide to the Jim Crow laws for a discussion of racial relations during these years).

Why does Eva kill plum in Sula?

Of all her children, Eva clearly loved Plum the best. This has not changed even with his return from the war as a heroin addict, and Eva’s decision to kill him is an expression of her love for him. Because she loves him she is unable to watch as he plummets further into addiction, and so she kills him.