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How can Sula be viewed as a misunderstood hero despite her portrayal as a villain in the novel Sula?

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For many heroes or heroines, their trajectory to become a hero involves a journey; often, this is both a physical journey (trying to get from one place to another) as well as an emotional or psychological journey (getting from one place of understanding to a greater or deeper place of understanding). Sula does both.

In many ways, Sula bucks whatever is considered "normal" for her time and place, both as a woman and as a black woman. For example, when she goes off to college, she physically leaves her birthplace to see a wider world, an unusual thing to do at the time. She also explores the complexities of emotional space through her understanding of her friendship with Nel and her changing role within that friendship. Sula is genuinely confused when Nel is upset that Sula is having an affair with Jude (Nel's husband) because Sula had understood their friendship as one of shared things. When they were girls, they would have dissected the attention of this one person—in this case Jude—and they would have done so together, as a pair of best friends. In her heroine's journey, Sula has to grapple with this change in her relationship with Nel and think about how this is possibly a representation of Sula's changing place in the world.

Heroes or heroines also often change the people who are around them. Nearly every single character is changed by Sula's presence (Shadrack, Ajax, Nel, etc.). Would Nel be the woman she ended up being if not for her friendship with Sula? Even at the end, when Nel is visiting Eva, Sula's grandmother, in the nursing home, would Nel have felt compelled to do that were it not for her relationship with Sula?

Finally, in a heroine's journey, the element of acceptance usually plays a prominent role, whether accepting the limitations of a situation or accepting a change in understanding based on the journey. Sula was almost always accepting. She accepted Nel's distance after the affair with Jude; she accepted the Deweys at Eva's house; she accepted Ajax; and she also accepted that things did not have to be done the way they had always been done (e.g., putting Eva in a nursing home, which was not the custom for black families at that time). Sula's curiosity about new experiences keeps her moving to her next decision, even if that decision was harmful to herself or others. It was curiosity, acceptance, and new understandings—even if she did not verbalize them (e.g., when she looked away from Nel because she could not pay for her own medications, knowing that Nel would understand that without words)—that kept Sula on the heroine's journey.

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Sula may be considered a misunderstood hero in the novel Sula because she is continually trying to develop her identity in a community that is not supportive or accepting of her as a person.  The members of the Bottom see Sula as a community outcast and are not sad when she disappears for many years.  Her actions towards her family and friends make her seem a villain:  Sula does not lament the burning of her own mother and instead watches from the window in awe; she also does not understand why Nel is so angry with her for sleeping with Jude.  However, Sula does not have the same views on the responsibilities and obligations that people have towards others so she does not follow these rules in her life.  Sula attempts to posit her own sense of identity in the relationships that she has with others, and therefore, she is a misunderstood hero.

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