Toni Morrison's novel, Sula, is filled with binary relationships: The Valley/the Bottom, Nel/Sula, Conventional/Unconventional gender roles, and the Bottom before/after Sula.
The most intriguing to me is the relationship between Nel and Sula. Earlier in the story, the narrator describes their meeting: "Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to be...they found in each other's eyes the intimacy they were looking for...they found relief in each other's personality" (52-3). The narrator describes a completion and close similarity of their identities yet also notes distinctions about their pasts and personalities. After Jude cheats on Nel with Sula, the friendship falls apart - "[Sula] had clung to Nel as the closest thing to both an other and a self, only to discover that she and Nel were not one and the same thing" (119), which shows the previously mentioned differences in personalities. Their relationship became dangerous because of their rare closeness that caused them to be dependent on each other, as if they should share everything. However, their relationship had already started coming undone after Chicken Little's death. During Nel's visit to Sunnydale, Eva Peace claims that Nel had a part in the murder, asserting, "What's the difference? You was there. You watched, didn't you?" (168). The death itself separated them subconsciously, long before Jude came into the picture - Nel would never take a part in the blame for Chicken Little's death; she merely watched.
Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Vintage International, 2004. Print.
The most intriguing to me is the relationship between Nel and Sula. Earlier in the story, the narrator describes their meeting: "Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to be...they found in each other's eyes the intimacy they were looking for...they found relief in each other's personality" (52-3). The narrator describes a completion and close similarity of their identities yet also notes distinctions about their pasts and personalities. After Jude cheats on Nel with Sula, the friendship falls apart - "[Sula] had clung to Nel as the closest thing to both an other and a self, only to discover that she and Nel were not one and the same thing" (119), which shows the previously mentioned differences in personalities. Their relationship became dangerous because of their rare closeness that caused them to be dependent on each other, as if they should share everything. However, their relationship had already started coming undone after Chicken Little's death. During Nel's visit to Sunnydale, Eva Peace claims that Nel had a part in the murder, asserting, "What's the difference? You was there. You watched, didn't you?" (168). The death itself separated them subconsciously, long before Jude came into the picture - Nel would never take a part in the blame for Chicken Little's death; she merely watched.
Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Vintage International, 2004. Print.
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