Upon reading the final chapters of Sula, I would have to say that they weren’t that bad. I actually enjoyed reading this novel in particular simply because it had so many twists and turns; especially with the character Sula. I never expected her to turn out to be the “bad omen” of the town.
In class, we went into groups and concentrated on certain parts of the book, my group had Sula’s funeral. This part of the book I found to be very significant, simply because no one cared that Sula died nor even mourned her death. The whole beginning paragraph of Section 1941 talks about how the townspeople either came to her funeral to 1. Make sure that Sula was truly dead or 2. Make sure that no one truly disrespected her funeral. The town looked at Sula as some sort of witch when she was alive, mainly for the fact that bad things happened whenever Sula was around; for example, when the boy fell off Sula’s porch and she got blamed for pushing him. And even in her death, they looked down upon her and still blamed her for things that went wrong in their lives. However, it was really ironic how she was looked at as such a horrible person, because in reality her horribleness is what made everybody so good. Sula in a way made them straighten out their lives for the better when she was alive and when she died everyone went back to their horrible crude ways. A quote that immediately caught my attention was on pg 153, it states, “Without her mockery, affection for others sank into flaccid disrepair…now that Sula was dead and gone with , they returned to a steeping resentment of the burdens of old people. Wives uncoddled their husbands; there seemed no further need to reinforce their vanity…” In other words, this quote already emphasizes what I have already explained. It even states how wives no longer were affectionate or cared about their husbands like the way they did when she was alive. They only loved their husbands in fear of Sula sleeping with them and now that she was dead, they didn’t have to worry about it. It just further explains how truly messed up this town was and how screwed up the people were that resided in it.
literaturer Said:
on April 16, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I think that’s a really good point. Everyone was so afraid of Sula, that they became better people. I was amazed to see how united the community became against Sula and her ‘horribleness.’ It was as if Sula, by trying to pull the community apart unintentionally, brought them together. I guess the old beliefs holds true-that nothing unites people like a common enemy.
I was really disapointed to see the community revert back to its former status though. I was hoping to see them really progress as a society, but if anything, they did the opposite.
smileydkj Said:
on April 22, 2007 at 9:40 pm
This is new to me. I didn’t know about the sterio type of Asian children being weak. It does make sense though to why the author would kill off Mit.
Dawn
kellbell Said:
on April 30, 2007 at 2:51 am
I would also have to agree with this in that yea the town was pretty much messed up. Like what is wrong with these people. I do however find it funny that yea when sula was alive they were afraid of her considered having her around a bad omen. Then Sula dies and people are happy that she is in fact dead. Following her death it seems like the town goes stright down the tube. So maybe in fact Sula being there wasn’t the bad omen but her not being there the bad omen.