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Dichotomy In Sula

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To Fall or to Hide: Good, Bad, Evil and Opression in Toni Morrison’s “Sula”

In Toni Morrison’s “Sula,” the title character, Sula, is believed by the town of Medallion to be an embodiment of evil. Nel, her best friend from childhood and the one person Sula truly cares about, is viewed by Medallion, if not the opposite, than as a caring, unassuming mother who was wronged by Sula and her evil ways. This depiction is carried throughout the book but is pulled into question during moments of dialogue, narration and insight into the characters’ thoughts. Morrison frames Sula and Nel as a dichotomy of “bad” girl and “good” girl but blurs the dichotomy when highlighting similarities in their background and context in order to show that their social …show more content…

One of the spiders whose only thought was the next rung of the web, who dangled in dark dry places...more terrified of the free fall than the snake’s breath below. But the free fall, oh no, that required, demanded-invention: a thing to do with the wings, a way of holding the legs and most of all a full surrender to the downward flight if they wished to taste their tongues or stay alive.” (Morrison 120).
With this analogy Morrison shows the reader two important realities. One, Sula and Nel are in the same position, dangling from the same web and determining how to deal with the same evil: gender and racial oppression. Two, Nel’s decision to conform, and forfeit her autonomy for marriage and a family may be immediately safer, but it keeps her confined to a strict role and it permits the oppressors to have control. Sula chose to face the oppressors, and went for a free fall into the snake’s mouth, as no other woman in Medallion dared to do. These instances of justification for Sula’s behavior are not Morrison’s attempt to convince the reader that Sula is actually a “good” person; Sula’s behavior is destructive and intentionally ambiguous. More, so, these instances are meant to confuse the dichotomy of “good” girl and “bad” girl, to show how these categories are patriarchal, as well as to show how “bad” and “good” behavior relates to the gender order and the oppression of Black women of

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