"Sure you do. You love her, like I love Sula. I just don't like her. That's the difference"-Hannah. "She only heard Hannah's words, and the pronouncement sent her flying up the stairs. In bewiderment, she stood at the window fingering the curtain edge, aware of a sting in her eye. Nel's call floated up and into the window, pulling her away from dark thoughts back into the bright, hot daylight." This part of the text made me feel very sad about Sula. I tried putting myself in her shoes and I could not imagine the pain she must have been in. I think Morrison captured the feeling perfectly by describing the sting in her eye. I, personally, have never experienced overhearing my mother talking negatively about me. However, the feeling of Hannah reminded me of the mother's in some of the past text we have read such as Daystar and A Pair of Silk Stockings. I feel these passages compliment this section in Sula because both Hannah and the other mothers do not necessarily dislike their children, they just need their space from the responsibility of the children. I had the same reaction of sadness in both Sula and the previous passages.
"Sula raised her eyes to them. Her voice was quiet. 'If I can do that to myself, what you suppose Ill do to you?' The shifting dirt was the only way Nel know that they were moving away; she was looking at Sula's face, which seemed miles and miles away." I really liked this scene in the book. I was shocked by Sula's actions and the way she stood up to the boys. It reminded me of when I was young and the boys in my neighborhood used to pick on me. My cousin, like Sula, stood up to the boys one day and they stopped picking on my immediately. I think as a whole both my experience and Sula's experience show how strong friendship can be and also shows the importance of girls standing up for other girls and not being afraid to show their inner and physical strength.
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In response to your first passage: Was Sula right in allowing this comment to hurt her as it did? I think that the reader in this section of the narrative is capable of understanding that Hannah does care deeply for her daughter, why do you think Morrison depicts Sula as taking this comment so harshly? What do you think is revealed about Sula in this scene?
ReplyDeleteIn response to your second passage: I think it is interesting that Morrison depicts Sula reacting to the boys with violence. More power to her :) Why do you think that Morrison chose to depict Sula fending off the boys in this way? Was there some other way that Morrison could have chosen for Sula to 'defeat' the boys? What does Morrison's depiction of Sula's violence here reveal about her? How would this revalation have changed if Sula was depicted reacting to the boys in some other way?
To comment on your first point, I also felt very sorry for her. I was very shocked when she had said that about her daughter. It doesn't even make sense in my mind how someone could say that about their own child. I know I would have been very hurt like she was if I were ever put in that situation. I think she was really looking for some sort of approval from her mother and it just wasn't there.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first passage about the girls overhearing their mothers I too immediately thought of Daystar and how that woman wanted to get away from it all for a short time. Although the mothers talk about still loving their children, it would be an upsetting thing to hear this conversation. I think Sula had every right to be upset in the way she was.
ReplyDeleteI also thought of the connection to Daystar and that different love that is untraditional... it would be upsetting to hear that coming from ur mother but at the same time we have to think of the time and place they come from it seems that she loves her children and shows it by how she has provided for them, sometimes i guess that is hard enough to do without all the other ways of showing you love someone
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