Sula--Close Analysis/Comparison Analysis

Cultural Healing

“[When] will those people ever be anything but animals, fit for nothing but substitutes for mules, only mules [don’t] kill each other” (63) thinks a white bargeman before he throws the corpse of a young boy into the river to ensure it doesn’t foul his cargo as he drags the body of Chicken Little behind his ship. His thoughts are completely normal for that of a white male in 1927; minorities seemed more inclined to violence, drunkenness, and crime than white people. Why would he not have such convictions? When non-dominant cultures are treated as inferior a stigma is created on the minority cultures which cannot easily be removed. Toni Morrison and Thomas King prove this in their novels Sula and Green Grass Running Water. The adults of the African American and American Indian cultures find themselves trapped into a caste system which leaves their children with little motivation to succeed. Since the time of Sula many have tried to remove whites’ stigma on other ethnicities. But even after the racism of the past has been swallowed, there is still a bitter aftertaste we cannot remove.

Even though the adults of the novels would like to move their lives forward, they often can’t because of their societal roles. The men of medallion spend much of their time “on sills, on stoops, on crates and broken chairs they sat tasting their teeth and waiting for something to distract them” (48). They had little else to do since they could not have many jobs. This reality is especially apparent in the case of Jude who sees “those white men laughing with the grandfathers but shying away from the young black men who could tear that road up” (81). He yearns for the labor. When he cannot work himself he needs “some of his appetites filled, some posture of adulthood recognized” (82). This shows that even though Jude is a provider for his family and full grown, he cannot feel a true sense of self because he feels like he is still a child. Helene is also treated as less-than-adult by white people; the train conductor addresses her as “‘gal’” (20) almost immediately after she leaves her town. Even Charlie, who has assimilated neatly into white culture, can only get a job when it is advantageous to white people; “They hired him because he was Blackfoot and Eli was Blackfoot and the combination played well in the newspapers” (126). King’s Indians and Morrison’s African Americans have been neatly allotted into non-white areas; the reservation and the Bottom both have very low employment levels which holds the characters back. In every aspect of their lives the non-white characters are subjected to inferiority and soon it begins to affect them.

After constant reminders of their place in society the “minorities” acquiesce to the will of the white people and must resign themselves to venting their emotions in new ways. Amos tries to drown his worries in beer and comes home so inebriated that he can’t function, “He tried to stand but pitched forward onto his face, lay there not moving, as if he had been shot” (96). Eva’s husband BoyBoy is obviously a prime example of being stuck in childhood just because of his name. Because of this he too tries to vent his emotions; “he liked womanizing best, drinking second, and abusing Eva third” (32). Others become incredibly bitter towards the white man. The Indians on the reservation council are a prime example of this bitterness; they feel that all they ever got from the government was a “goose” (127). Jude shares this resentment when he says “‘White man running it–nothing good” (102). Although he tries to channel his identity into his family and keep his sense of self, ultimately it is useless and he leaves Nel after having “smashed her heart” and leaveing her with “no heart just her brain raveling away” (117). Even Eva, who loves her children so much she sacrifices her leg for her family, has no time to nurture her children and give them the love and attention they need. As she points out, this is logical; “‘What would I look like leapin’ ‘round that little old room playin’ with youngins with three beets to my name” (69)?

Even though the children grow into better times, they are largely the same as their parents. All of their role models are drunk, bitter, or too tired to love them, and it affects them negatively. After “Amos never came back” (97) Alberta has trouble trusting men and thus can’t choose between Lionel and Charlie. As she grows up she feels a need for control which stops her from riding in planes because she feels “helpless” (90). It is highly possible that Alberta’s need for control stems from the uncontrollable events of her childhood and her relationship with her father. Morrison uses the Deweys to symbolize the stunted growth of those who are not nurtured and lack identity. The three of them physically never grow to be more than 48 inches tall because they have nothing to grow into. Lionel is torn apart by his identity and longs to be John Wayne. Perhaps the child most affected by her lack of true role models is Sula. One of the only times Sula shows any emotion in the book is when she finds out that her mother “‘just don’t like her’” (57) and feels a “sting in her eye” (57). After this point everything goes downhill for Sula. Soon after she throws a little boy into a river and is never the same. Even in adulthood she is “incapable of making any but the most trivial decisions” (101), and has “no center, no speck around which to grow” (119).

In point of fact the characters are all suffering from cultural trauma. The onslaught of whites onto American Indians and African Americans has disturbed the culture so greatly we cannot expect the culture to bounce back. It can take an traumatized individual years to get over a traumatic event, they may feel abandoned and alone, and their sense of safety and relationships with others is destroyed. If this can happen to an individual, can we expect entire ethnicities who have endured centuries of humiliation and degradation to act normally in society? Morrison ends by stating “Nobody colored lived much up in the bottom any more” (166), not because they have gained any status, but because “hill land was more valuable now” (166). Although the Civil Rights movement has come and gone and the government has a special bureau for Indian affairs, little has changed. Lionel stands among the wreckage of Eli’s old house ready to reside in the wreckage as a symbol because although the weapon of discrimination has been removed, the wound remains gaping open.