Thursday, April 11, 2013
Sula--Celebrating Women
Although Sula contains
several male characters, the book is, in many ways, a novel that celebrates
women. Sula looms so large in the
reader's mind because Morrison strips away the power traditionally given to
men. Examine the deficiencies of two
male characters that suggest contrasting strengths in female characters.
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The failures of men to support and raise their children allow the women in “Sula” to discover their ability of self-reliance. Eva’s husband BoyBoy left her and their children with “… $1.65, five eggs, three beets and no idea of what or how to feel” (Morrison 32). Eva realized that she could not allow her children to starve and suffer as she felt helpless without BoyBoy. She got back up on her feet and placed the responsibility of supporting her children into her own hands. Although she left for a period of time, she returned to her children with a large sum of money, showing that in times of need women become strong and independent. Her daughter Hannah follows in her footsteps when she becomes a single mother after the death of her husband. On the other hand, Hannah entered many affairs with men but she had “… no passion attached to her relationships” (Morrison 44). Hannah refused to allow another man to control her the way Rekus had when he was alive. Rekus may not have chosen to leave Hannah and Sula but his death can be considered a form of abandonment. Despite the difficulties, Hannah preferred to bring Sula up on her own through hard work and perseverance, which in turn set a positive example for Sula. Eva and Hannah were not only able to maintain their families as single parents but also proved that women could fulfill both roles of mother and father.
ReplyDeleteI would like to agree with you, Denise. Although Morrison does not clearly state the strength Eva has when BoyBoy leaves her, he explains it when he describes her shoving "the last bit of food she had in the world (besides three beets) up his [Plum] ass" (34). She suffers without BoyBoy, but soon grows independent when she takes matters into her own hands. She shows that she can manage being a single mother of three, even without the father to help support them. Eva realizes that she is capable of being an independent woman who can provide for herself and her children, even if she had to take drastic measures, such as leaving her children for 18 months, because money came out of it. And when BoyBoy shows up in her house, she is mature about it. Even though she feels "A liquid trail of hate" (36), she does not show it, because she wants BoyBoy to know that she is doing just fine without him. As for Hannah, she is just like her mother. I agree with the fact that she refused to have another man control her, because now she knows to be her own person. Rekus' death can be more of a relief for Hannah, because now she "rippled with sex" (42), but is also "fastidious about whom she slept with" (43). Hannah learns to have fun, but also keep a guard up. Just like her mother, they both learned that they are capable of being independent and do not need a man to complete them.
ReplyDeleteSo far in Sula, Eva Peace is the most celebrated and powerful woman, while a lot of the men seem to be insane or deeply troubled. Tar Baby, for instance, is an alcoholic “intent solely on drinking himself to death” (40). He speaks in whispers and stays out of everyone’s way, which is a stark contrast to the bold, Eva whose commanding presence is known throughout her house—and even Medallion—even though she rarely ever comes down from her bedroom. Another deficient male character is Eva’s own son, Plum, whose “habits were much like Tar Baby’s but there were no bottles” (45). He can barely find the means to feed himself even though there are meals in the house, which is even sadder when readers think about the lengths Eva went through for his survival. Both of these men, Tar Baby and Plum, are essentially dependent on Eva, and in Plum’s case, she takes matters into her own hands and saves him by doing what he was to cowardly to do himself.
ReplyDeleteAdd-on: Therefore, these two male characters reinforce the strengths of Eva Peace, who is the guiding individual and leader of all who have lost their way, and their strength, to find their way back.
DeleteI agree with the point that Catherine made in how celebrated Eva Peace is. The fact that her and her daughter, Hannah, constantly surround themselves with men who absolutely adore them really shows the control that these women have. She argues and holds a certain presence in the hearts of those men, but she does not belittle them, for she "fussed interminably with brides of the newly wed couples for not getting their men's supper ready on time... etc" (Morrison 42). It seems as though Eva believes in women being the support in a man's life through little jobs such as preparing supper and ironing their shirts. It reflects the role of Eve of the Bible who was the one who provokes awe, love, and respect from Adam, but is the one who completes him and fulfills that loneliness he has despite him being surrounded by the beauty of the Garden of Eden. The character Plum, Eva's son has a dependence on Eva. Eva gives her all to Plum as he grows up through hard times without their father and it translates into adulthood when Plum ends up withering away in his mother's home when he comes back after serving duty. Plum is clearly miserable, "his habits much like Tar Baby's but there were no bottles" (Morrison 45), but he does nothing about it and simply wastes away, so his mother does it for him. Eva brings Plum to the world and is the one who has the power to choose how and when he leaves it and that's exactly what she does.
ReplyDeleteThrough Morrison’s juxtaposition of male and female characters, she is able to emphasize the strength of women and portray them as great, powerful people despite their flaws. Even though Eva leaves her children for eighteen months, she is still looked up to because of the suffering she has endured. After BoyBoy cheats on her and leaves her, she “has to postpone her anger for two years” (Morrison 32) and restrain herself from giving in to the hardship of raising her three children on her own. For readers, the steadfastness of her resolve, her kindness she shows by adopting children on the street, and her ability to raise all of them on her own demonstrates her resilient character, while also portraying BoyBoy as a weak, unfaithful man. Furthermore, Sula and Nel’s attempt to “try and fight back, and with a knife”(Morrison 54) when faced with the threat of being attacked by the Irish students establishes them as strong, tough women, while depicting the boys as malicious, unrelenting tormenters who only thought of getting “an arm around one of their waists” (Morrison 54). It is the comparison between the men’s ill deeds and the women’s capability to resist them that brings out such powerful qualities in Eva, Nel and Sula.
ReplyDeleteSo far in Sula, Eva Peace is the most powerful woman. In a way, the abandonment of BoyBoy was for the better because it has made Eva stronger. As a single mother, she took several sacrifices in order to feed her children because she knew, “the children needed her” (32). Her return as a cripple shows how much she scarified during her time away with the kids. Her sacrifices and self reliance gives her enough strength to kill Plum in order to save him from his addiction. A mother killing his youngest son who “floated in a constant swaddle of love and affection” (45) must have been devastating, but Eva Peace did not show any remorse. Eva has done this out of love for her youngest son because she could not stand to watch Plum suffer anymore. Perhaps Eva preferred death by her own hands than death by a drug. Morrison includes this to show the amount of love she has for Plum and the sacrifices she is willing to take in order to save his son from his misery.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Kevin, that Eva killed Plum out of love. It was a "painful journey" (48) for Eva because it wasn't only sacrifice but selfishness -- Eva believed that she had the right to decide what is best for Plum, which in this case, is his death. Additionally, Morrison shows the decisiveness of women when Eva made the choice to set Plum on fire, even if "the smoke" would stay "in her hair for years" (37), perhaps haunting her forever. Eva "didn't willingly set foot on the stairs...for years" and "the pain in her armpits was severe" (45) but she went to Plum's room nonetheless. Eva's actions remains ambiguous, therefore proving Morrison's suggestion that the power of a women's (or a mother's) love is extremely strong and complex, and that love isn't always moral.
ReplyDeleteFrom the young and innocent Plum to the full grown disheveled men such as Tar Baby, who just can’t seem to get his act together, Toni Morrison depicts all of them in a powerless state that suggests women as more capable beings. When Plum’s bowel movements had ceased, his mother exhausted every measure to free him of his stool. Eva proves herself as a competent woman because she is able to utilize her vast amount of knowledge to ease her helpless child’s suffering. By employing a noteworthy ratio of male children to adult males, Morrison presents men in general as debilitated people who have no control over their own lives. Tar Baby, whose name suggests a vile sight, is an enervated man who would pay his rent by completing “odd jobs,” and the proceed to “come home to drink” (Morrison 40). Tar Baby’s actions are rendered inane compared to Eva’s whose day primarily consisted of taking care of helpless children. Eva is a woman that is able to act without male input as shown by her sole decision in killing her child, Plum. She saw Plum as never going to be able to be of any use and because of this she murders him, an action many men (who are stereotyped as the stronger gender) would not undertake. This juxtaposition is among many that proves women as the more proficient gender.
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