Sula (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Toni Morrison
- First Published: 1973
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: 1919-1965
- Setting: “The Bottom,” a community in Medallion, Ohio
- Principal Characters: Sula Peace, Nel Wright, Hannah Peace, Eva Peace, Helene Wright, Shadrack, Albert Jacks (Ajax)
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: African Americans, Maturation or coming of age, Family or family life, North America or North Americans, Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Tradition, Racism, Love or romance, Race, Sex or sexuality, Twentieth century, Gender roles, Betrayal, Friendship, Midwest, Ohio, Adultery, Women, Accidents, Duty, Death or dying, Good and evil, Lifestyles, Fire
- Locales: Medallion, OH
Form and Content
In Sula, Toni Morrison explores a community’s role in the individual’s search for wholeness. The story begins at the end, after the African American community known as “the Bottom” has been destroyed and replaced with a golf course. The narrator reveals the history of “the Bottom” forty years before it was destroyed, in chapters titled simply by the year of focus, beginning with 1919 and ending with 1965.
The community gained its name from a joke played on a slave by a white farmer. After promising his slave freedom and land upon the...
[The entire page is 2574 words long]
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