Summary: Sula by Toni Morrison

The Bot­tom, pre­dom­i­nant­ly a Black com­mu­ni­ty nes­tled in the hills above the wealthy, pre­dom­i­nant­ly white zone of Medal­lion, Ohio, was cun­ning­ly grant­ed to a for­mer slave by his own­er, who tricked him into believ­ing the hilly land was a gift due to its close­ness to heav­en. Despite the decep­tion, the region thrived into a bustling com­mu­ni­ty. Present­ly, afflu­ent white indi­vid­u­als have set their sights on the land, threat­en­ing to demol­ish the com­mu­ni­ty in favor of a golf course. Shadrack, a war vet­er­an liv­ing there, grap­ples with post-war adap­ta­tion and invents ‘Nation­al Sui­cide Day’ as a cop­ing mech­a­nism for his fear of death, which the town even­tu­al­ly embraces. The nar­ra­tive jux­ta­pos­es the lives of two com­pan­ions, Nel and Sula, hail­ing from dif­fer­ent back­grounds. Nel is brought up in a strict, tra­di­tion­al house­hold by her moth­er Helene but ques­tions the rigid lifestyle upon meet­ing her uncon­ven­tion­al grand­moth­er Rochelle, a for­mer sex work­er. Sula’s fam­i­ly, how­ev­er, is per­ceived as pecu­liar and promis­cu­ous by the towns­folk due to the behav­iors of her moth­er, Han­nah, and grand­moth­er Eva.

Their abode also acts as a res­i­dence for three boys and assort­ed lodgers. Despite their dis­par­i­ties, the girls forge a deep con­nec­tion dur­ing their ado­les­cent years. Nev­er­the­less, their bond is put to the test when a trag­ic inci­dent unfolds, result­ing in the drown­ing of a local boy dur­ing a game ini­ti­at­ed by Sula. They keep their involve­ment in the acci­dent hid­den and grad­u­al­ly grow apart as Sula’s moth­er per­ish­es due to fatal burns from a dress fire. After high school, Nel con­forms to soci­etal norms, mar­ry­ing and becom­ing a mother.

Con­verse­ly, Sula leads a life of bold inde­pen­dence and open defi­ance of soci­etal con­ven­tions, depart­ing the Bot­tom for a decade and engag­ing in mul­ti­ple liaisons, includ­ing with white men. Upon her return, she is demo­nized as wicked, par­tic­u­lar­ly after engag­ing in an affair with Nel’s spouse, Jude, who sub­se­quent­ly deserts Nel. Iron­i­cal­ly, her pres­ence unites the com­mu­ni­ty. A strained rec­on­cil­i­a­tion unfolds between Nel and Sula before the lat­ter’s demise in 1940. The har­mo­ny in the Bot­tom dis­in­te­grates with her pass­ing. By 1965, the specter of a golf course looms. Nel, vis­it­ing Eva in a nurs­ing facil­i­ty, is accused of com­plic­i­ty in the drown­ing of the local boy. This accu­sa­tion prompts Nel to reassess her judg­ment of Sula and acknowl­edge that she had too quick­ly adhered to soci­etal dic­tates to claim moral ascen­dan­cy. The tale delves into themes of ethics, con­nec­tions, race, and gen­der, eschew­ing sim­plis­tic res­o­lu­tions and under­scor­ing the intri­ca­cy and uncer­tain­ty of life.

prelude

The Bot­tom, orig­i­nal­ly an entire­ly Black neigh­bor­hood perched in the hills above Medal­lion, Ohio, under­goes pro­found trans­for­ma­tion as afflu­ent white indi­vid­u­als encroach. The edi­fices, once the core of a vibrant African-Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty, are razed to pave the way for a golf course. Accord­ing to local leg­end, the Bot­tom acquired its moniker when a manip­u­la­tive slave own­er duped a slave into believ­ing he would secure free­dom and fer­tile ‘bot­tom land’ if he com­plet­ed ardu­ous tasks. Instead, the slave own­er grant­ed him a par­cel of land on the hills, decep­tive­ly label­ing it the ‘bot­tom of heav­en’ as it was near­er to God. The slave accept­ed this ‘gift’, only to real­ize lat­er that the land was chal­leng­ing to cul­ti­vate. In 1917, Shadrack, a 20-year-old war vet­er­an, under­goes a dis­con­cert­ing ordeal dur­ing World War I. Awak­en­ing in a vet­er­ans’ hos­pi­tal, he is alarmed to wit­ness his hands enlarg­ing and grap­ples with a male nurse who tries to feed him. Sub­se­quent­ly restrained in a strait­jack­et, which he finds com­fort­ing since he no longer has to behold his hands. Though yearn­ing to view his vis­age, he’s hin­dered by his incar­cer­a­tion. Released from the hos­pi­tal a year lat­er due to space con­straints, Shadrack is appre­hend­ed upon being dis­cov­ered cry­ing by the road­side. In his cell, he val­i­dates his exis­tence by peer­ing at his reflec­tion in the toi­let basin. Lat­er, he is returned to the Bot­tom with a farmer. Plagued by the dread of sud­den demise, Shadrack estab­lish­es Nation­al Sui­cide Day on every Jan­u­ary 3rd as a mech­a­nism to con­front his anx­i­ety. Ini­tial­ly per­turb­ing to res­i­dents, this cus­tom ulti­mate­ly assim­i­lates into their rou­tine. Helene Wright, off­spring of a Cre­ole pros­ti­tute named Rochelle, was reared by her devout grand­moth­er, Cecile. Wed­ded off at 16 to Wiley Wright, Cecile’s great-nephew, they lead a respectable life in the Bot­tom. Nine years into mar­riage, they beget a daugh­ter, Nel, whom Helene rais­es fol­low­ing strin­gent reg­u­la­tions. Dur­ing Cecile’s ail­ment, Helene read­ies for a jour­ney to New Orleans for the inter­ment. Despite her ele­gant garb, she faces humil­i­a­tion by a big­ot­ed train con­duc­tor. Arriv­ing in New Orleans, she’s dis­con­cert­ed to encounter Rochelle at Cecile’s res­i­dence. Nel’s fleet­ing inter­ac­tion with Rochelle leaves a pro­found impact.

1921

Eva Peace, for­sak­en by her hus­band Boy­Boy, sub­sists on the benev­o­lence of her neigh­bors while tend­ing to her three off­spring. Her infant son Plum, afflict­ed with a life-threat­en­ing intesti­nal con­di­tion, is res­cued when Eva man­u­al­ly alle­vi­ates his con­sti­pa­tion. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Eva entrusts her chil­dren with a neigh­bor, Mrs. Sug­gs, assur­ing her swift return. Upon reap­pear­ing after a year and a half, she’s now mys­te­ri­ous­ly afflu­ent but sans a leg. Rumors cir­cu­lat­ed that she bartered her limb for insur­ance funds. On Boy­Boy’s brief return, seem­ing­ly afflu­ent, Eva har­bors no ani­mos­i­ty. He shows no inter­est in the chil­dren, depart­ing with his urban-dwelling para­mour. Eva antic­i­pates the deep-seat­ed aver­sion she’ll nur­ture toward him. Uti­liz­ing her unex­plained resources, Eva con­structs a grand res­i­dence where she dwells as a dig­ni­fied matri­arch with her daugh­ter and grand­daugh­ter, Han­nah and Sula. The abode also accom­mo­dates three adopt­ed boys, all chris­tened Dewey and a revolv­ing door of ten­ants. The Deweys fos­ter a bond and com­mence school­ing togeth­er despite the vari­ance in their ages. Addi­tion­al­ly, a white ine­bri­ate, Tar Baby, lodges in the res­i­dence. Both Han­nah and Eva rel­ish male com­pan­ion­ship. While Eva flirts yet abstains from car­nal rela­tions, Han­nah freely indulges in liaisons but shuns endur­ing com­mit­ments. Upon Plum’s return from World War I, he appears a shad­ow of his for­mer self, tor­ment­ed by war­fare and grap­pling with hero­in addic­tion. One night, Eva suf­fo­cates him in kerosene and immo­lates him.

1922

Nel and Sula, con­trast­ing in tem­pera­ment, form a friend­ship: Nel exudes restraint and dis­cre­tion, while Sula man­i­fests impul­siv­i­ty and assertive­ness. View­ing them­selves as com­ple­men­tary halves of a whole, their blos­som­ing physiques cap­ture the inter­est of Ajax, who dis­parag­ing­ly remarks, “pig meat.” A group of Catholic boys tor­ment Black chil­dren, with Nel becom­ing their focal point. To evade these boys, Nel and Sula com­mence tak­ing an alter­na­tive route home from school. Upon a con­fronta­tion with the boys once more, Sula bran­dish­es a knife and shears off the tip of her fin­ger as a deter­rent. This act instills fear in the boys, prompt­ing their retreat. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Sula over­hears her moth­er Hannah…disliked her. Chick­en Lit­tle, a boy near­by, comes across Sula and Nel dur­ing their alone time. As Nel mocks him, Sula steps in to shield him. Play­ful­ly, Sula spins him around by his hands, but he acci­den­tal­ly slips, plung­ing into a riv­er, caus­ing his demise. Sula seeks solace from Shadrack, inad­ver­tent­ly aban­don­ing her dress’s belt. Nel stays com­posed and reas­sures that no one saw the inci­dent. They col­lec­tive­ly agree not to dis­close the mishap to any­one. Chick­en Lit­tle’s remains are found by a barge­man. The white author­i­ties show apa­thy towards the death of the black boy; one even pro­pos­es dump­ing the body back into the water. Sula and Nel attend Chick­en Lit­tle’s funer­al. While Nel, bur­dened with remorse, remains silent, Sula open­ly weeps, devoid of any guilt.

1923–1927

A fierce wind­storm dev­as­tates the Bot­tom, uproot­ing trees and lead­ing to an intense heat­wave. Han­nah queries Eva about her affec­tion for her chil­dren, pro­vok­ing Eva. She argues that her effort to pro­vide for their basic neces­si­ties left no space for play­ful warmth. When Han­nah inquires about Plum’s pass­ing, Eva col­laps­es, reveal­ing that Plum had regressed to a child­like state, recall­ing a past when his life was imper­iled by a severe bow­el ail­ment. Han­nah has a vision of a crim­son bridal gown, which she shares with Eva. Nonethe­less, Eva is pre­oc­cu­pied with Sula, dis­play­ing typ­i­cal teenage behav­ior. Eva wit­ness­es Han­nah’s dress catch­ing fire from her win­dow and leaps out to extin­guish the flames with her body. The Sug­gs fam­i­ly man­ages to douse the fire, but Han­nah sus­tains severe injuries, suc­cumb­ing lat­er at the hos­pi­tal. Eva sur­vives, thanks to Old Willy Fields, an order­ly, whom she lat­er resents for res­cu­ing her. Eva believes Han­nah’s dream fore­warned of her fiery demise and recalls see­ing Sula observ­ing the grue­some scene with appar­ent inter­est. Jude Greene, a 20-year-old serv­er at Hotel Medal­lion, har­bors ambi­tions for a more mas­cu­line occu­pa­tion. On hear­ing of a new road con­struc­tion ven­ture, he aspires to par­tic­i­pate, but his hopes are dashed when only whites are select­ed. To ful­fill his desire for man­hood, he pro­pos­es to Nel. Fol­low­ing her grad­u­a­tion, they wed in a lav­ish cer­e­mo­ny. Nel, influ­enced by her moth­er’s tra­di­tion­al per­spec­tives after the trag­ic loss of Chick­en Lit­tle, will­ing­ly embraces the role of a sub­servient wife. After the nup­tials, Sula leaves for col­lege and is gone for a decade.

1937

Upon Sula’s return to Bot­tom, her opu­lent attire and the sud­den arrival of a “plague of robins” astound the locals. She vis­its Eva, lead­ing to a swift clash over Sula’s sin­gle sta­tus. In retal­i­a­tion to Eva’s cen­sure, Sula brings up Eva’s self-harm for insur­ance mon­ey. When Eva implies that Sula was neglect­ful as a daugh­ter, Sula coun­ter­at­tacks by accus­ing Eva of being respon­si­ble for Plum’s demise. Sula even threat­ens to harm Eva as she believes Eva did to Plum. Ter­ri­fied, Eva begins lock­ing her door every night. Sub­se­quent­ly, Sula assumes the role of Eva’s care­giv­er and trans­fers her to a nurs­ing home, caus­ing a com­mo­tion in the vicin­i­ty. Despite label­ing Sula as wicked, she con­fess­es to Nel that her actions were dri­ven by fear of Eva. Sula and Nel start to recon­nect. A quar­rel erupts between Jude and Sula when he returns home one day, lead­ing to an affair. Nel inad­ver­tent­ly uncov­ers her hus­band’s infi­deli­ty with her best friend, prompt­ing Jude to depart from Nel and their chil­dren. Left heart­bro­ken by the betray­al of her hus­band and friend, Nel finds her­self devastated.

1939

The towns­peo­ple pon­der over the swarm of robins pre­ced­ing Sula and the sto­ry of her response to Han­nah’s trag­ic acci­dent. They deduce that the birth­mark on Sula’s eye embod­ies Han­nah’s ash­es. The rev­e­la­tion of her inti­ma­cy with white men hor­ri­fies them fur­ther. Blam­ing her for ran­dom calami­ties in the town, they attribute Mr. Fin­ley chok­ing to death on a bone upon see­ing Sula as a result of her pres­ence. Accused of caus­ing Teapot, a neglect­ed child, to fall from her porch by acci­dent, the towns­folk unite against the per­ceived mal­ice, inten­si­fy­ing their efforts to lead right­eous lives. Sula’s var­i­ous liaisons are fleet­ing. Unknown to her, she engages in sex­u­al encoun­ters due to the result­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and melan­choly. Ajax, drawn to her capri­cious nature, treats his lovers kind­ly, spark­ing rival­ry among them. Engag­ing in a fer­vent romance, he and Sula rev­el in each oth­er’s auton­o­my. Sula, for the first time, yearns to pos­sess her lover. How­ev­er, upon sens­ing her domes­tic aspi­ra­tions, Ajax ter­mi­nates their rela­tion­ship, leav­ing Sula shat­tered by his departure.

1940

Strick­en by a severe ill­ness, Sula receives a vis­it from Nel, who has­n’t seen her in three years. Offer­ing assis­tance, Nel receives a request from Sula for a phar­ma­cy vis­it. A dis­cus­sion ensues regard­ing why Sula was involved with Jude, lead­ing to a dis­course on eth­i­cal stan­dards and oblig­a­tions. Sula chal­lenges Nel’s belief that black women can­not stand alone and be self-suf­fi­cient. Draw­ing a par­al­lel between the women she knows and “stumps” slow­ly with­er­ing, she likens her cir­cum­stance to the down­fall of a red­wood. Sula asserts her soli­tude is gen­uine, con­trast­ing it with Nel’s “sec­ond­hand” iso­la­tion. Accord­ing to Sula, Jude mere­ly occu­pied a space in her mind. Leav­ing Nel with a ques­tion of who tru­ly embod­ied virtue. In immense agony, Sula reflects on her his­to­ry. Recall­ing the exhil­a­ra­tion of wit­ness­ing her moth­er ablaze, she pon­ders that all emo­tions, actions, and words are mere­ly “some­thing to do.” Curl­ing up and suck­ing her thumb, she real­izes abrupt­ly that her heart is motion­less, and she does­n’t breathe. Acknowl­edg­ing her demise, she eager­ly antic­i­pates inform­ing Nel that death is devoid of suffering.

1941–1965

Ini­tial­ly per­ceived as a pos­i­tive omen by the Bot­tom com­mu­ni­ty, Sula’s death prompts their atten­dance at her funer­al to con­firm her pass­ing. Expec­ta­tions of job oppor­tu­ni­ties for black labor­ers and the intro­duc­tion of a racial­ly inclu­sive nurs­ing home uplift the com­mu­ni­ty. How­ev­er, tragedy strikes as a severe frost dec­i­mates crops and live­stock, plung­ing the com­mu­ni­ty into an eco­nom­ic cri­sis com­pound­ed by ill­ness and soci­etal dis­ar­ray. The harsh weath­er eas­es by New Year’s Eve. Shadrack, the war vet­er­an, expe­ri­ences lone­li­ness for the first time since his return. Recall­ing a young girl who once com­fort­ed him dur­ing his ser­vice, bear­ing a birth­mark resem­bling one on Sula’s body, Shadrack ques­tions the imper­ma­nence of things. Despite this change in per­spec­tive, Shadrack per­sists with his Nation­al Sui­cide Day tra­di­tion. Many from the Bot­tom com­mu­ni­ty join him in a protest at the con­struc­tion site, result­ing in a fatal acci­dent claim­ing sev­er­al lives, includ­ing the Deweys. Fast for­ward to 1965, Nel con­tem­plates the trans­for­ma­tions wit­nessed over the years, such as the Bot­tom com­mu­ni­ty’s migra­tion to Medal­lion City. Despite improved work prospects, she miss­es the com­mu­nal spir­it they once shared. Lone­ly with­out her chil­dren and Jude, Nel feels adrift. A vis­it to Eva in a nurs­ing home brings not solace, but a star­tling accu­sa­tion that Nel and Sula were equal­ly cul­pa­ble for Chick­en Lit­tle’s death. This rev­e­la­tion dis­turbs Nel, com­pelling her to con­front her guilt. Final­ly, at the ceme­tery where Sula rests, Nel pays her respects. Leav­ing the ceme­tery, she encoun­ters Shadrack, who strug­gles to rec­og­nize her. Over­whelmed by grief, Nel calls out for her depart­ed friend, Sula.