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Sula by Toni Morrison

The common phrase that "opposites attract" is continuously seen in everyday endeavors.

The statement is not only true to sciences, but also in friendships and relationships. Human

beings tend to develop attractions for people whose personalities have some differences from

their own. In this manner, life is believed to be more interesting, and our view of the world

expanded. The perfect example to explore this assertion is Sula and Nel, whose friendship forms

he theme in Toni Morrison's novel, "Sula." The story expands on the conventional idea of evil

and good. Sula, by Toni Morrison, is mainly focused on Sula and Nel's friendship. Despite

having different personalities, their friendship shows the complementing strategy of the two

friends, and how it adds values to forming their identities; besides the struggles of both friends,

their friendship prevails at the end.

The two girls, Sula and Nel, operate as a magnet. They have a strong attraction towards

one another, and when they are split, they are entirely useless. Their friendship is tested by

toying with sex and love, good and evil, life and death. Nel becomes conventional after her

marriage, and a settled down woman. She feels as if her life is in the "oppressive neatness" in her

mother's house (Fetters 1). When Sula is gone, Nel's unique self also vanishes. As much as the

relationship later turns bitter when Sula sleeps with Nel's husband, the initial bond was enough to

see them through their childhood struggles.

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Friendship helps the characters to achieve self-awareness. Nel is oppressed by her mother

and develops an attraction to the carefree life of Sula. Sula, too, is attracted to Nel's seemingly

orderly and peaceful environment. The two desire what the other lacks, and that forms the

attraction between them. The attraction enables them to develop personal identities. They are

perfect together as Nel discovers the fun and youthfulness in Sula, while the stability and order

in Nel's life are what excites Sula (Haque 1).

Lifelong friendship is essential in enabling individuals to realize their full potentials. As

the friendship grew over the years between Sula and Nel, the two eventually become one. "Their

friendship was so close; they themselves had difficulty distinguishing one's thoughts from the

others" (Morrison 83). Their differences melt away, establishing a perfect neutral ground

impossible to separate. At some point, even Eva laments to Nel, "You. Sula. What's the

difference?" (Morrison 168). In this context, Eva is referring to the perfect bond of Nel and Sula

that makes them an item, at the moment when Chicken Little drowns in the river. The scene saw

Sula and Nel swap personalities, where Sula panics and cries, while Nel seems collected and

controls her emotions to the extent of calming her better half.

In conclusion, friendship enables the two characters to connect oneself and the other.

This lets them overcome the visage of failed relations between mother and daughter. The novel

explores the effectiveness of female friendship and how the girls feel empowered to face arising

challenges like gender and class domination. Female bonding and interactions are helpful to the

young girls as it enables them to share personal experiences, secure and care for each other, and

develop complementary views about their homes. The bonded girls can also take counseling as

inspired by friendship. The newfound love and friendship help the two characters take a course

for self-discovery and give each other power.

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Works Cited

Fetters, Cassandra. "The Continual Search for Sisterhood: Narcissism, Projection, and

Intersubjective Disruptions in Toni Morrison's Sula and Feminist Communities."

Meridians 13.2 (2016): 28-55.

Haque, Farhana. "Toni Morison’s Sula Represents The Motherhood, Friendship And Love: A

Study Of Sula And Nel’s Friendship, Life’s Struggle And Estrangement From Childhood

To Adulthood" Vol. 5, Issue 6, Oct-Nov 2016; 5-16.

Morrison, Toni. Sula. Knopf; [Distributed By Random House], 2004.