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5 March 2022

Shadrack’s Mental Illness/PTSD &

Resulting Isolation in Sula

The opinions and community consensus of young Shadrack by the Bottoms residents are

the result of a carefully crafted and complex construct from Sula author Toni Morrison.

Considered by most of his peers to be mentally unstable, frightening and unhinged since his

return from the war, “they knew Shadrack was crazy,” the reasons behind these fears and the

ostracization go deeper than simple appearances (Morrison 19). The concept of post traumatic

stress disorder was still decades away, however this, in combination with the Bottom’s ignorance

to his medical condition and the prevailing African superstitions in the community led to

Shadrack being demonized and shunned by many of his contemporaries who, according to

Vashti Crutcher Lewis, “were out of touch with their African roots” (92). Morrison’s work

alludes to strong Western African beliefs that, when misinterpreted, influence the portrayal,

view, and treatment of Shadrack, these include the mythological “water priest” in addition to the

misguided fears of those who have been comatose and recovered consciousness (Klingman 2).

Perhaps these fears stem from subconscious misinterpretations by Shadrack’s neighbors, in

African cultural cosmology, these occurrences and Shadrack’s condition would be revered and

respected as opposed to repulsed and shamed (Klingman 3).

‘Shell shock’ was a term coined by medical professionals during World War I in

response to the neurosis being seen in many of the servicemen (McKenzie 29). This condition,
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also referred to as ‘neurasthenia,‘ is now what is commonly referred to as PTSD or Post

Traumatic Stress Disorder. Early treatments included sedation through ether, chloroform and

even electric shock therapy and just as Shadrack realized, he had been drugged for most of his

term in the military hospital “A sleep deeper than the hospital drugs” (McKenzie 29; Morrison

19). Largely untreated for this serious condition, Shadrack was cast out of the hospital to make

room for other patients and essentially left to fend for himself and later, self-medicate “On

Tuesday and Friday he sold the fish he had caught that morning, the rest of the week he was

drunk, loud, obscene, funny and outrageous” (Morrison 20). His neighbors in the Bottoms did

not understand his condition and took him for crazy when in fact, it appears that Shadrack

suffered from untreated PTSD and simply could not come to grips with his experiences.

Misunderstandings within the community were not limited to Shadrack’s PTSD but also

included superstitions linked to his having been in a coma following his injury in France. As

academic Vashti Crutcher Lewis points out in Morrison’s writing, “from her African viewpoint,

both Shadrack and Sula would have been honored members and not pariahs of the community”

(92). In Western African culture, a tribal member that has fallen into unconsciousness

(comatose) was considered someone who’s spirit had left the body and visited the ancestral

world and thus, was special for they had communed with the other side (Lewis 92). Likewise,

regardless of odd behavior afterwards, “lunatics were revered” with respect due to their

connection to the “unseen spiritual world” (Lewis 92). Sadly, Shadrack was just considered

damaged and crazy, living in a shack on the river.

Having taken his grandfather’s riverside shack as his own and making his living from the

water, Shadrack is, according to African myth, the communities ‘water priest’ (Lewis 93). Much

in keeping with Morrison’s African themed writing style, the situational placement of him in this
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pseudo-deity role adds to the community’s obvious disassociation from their true African

heritage. Not recognizing Shadrack’s position nor its importance to them, he is further maligned

as a hermit and a loner simply through his choice to live on the river, alone and solitary. “Once

the people understood the boundaries and nature of his madness, they could fit him, so to speak,

into the scheme of things” which, sadly included his isolation as the community ignored him

except to buy his fish on Tuesdays and Fridays (Morrison 20).

Sadly, the effect of the war and its horrors destroyed Shadrack, but his own community

was also to blame. War claims victims today although a great deal more is understood about

PTSD. The most important component of recovery is support from family and friends and

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, none of which Shadrack received (McKenzie 31). Furthermore,

Shadrack’s coma was looked upon with skepticism and fear by the people of the Bottoms and his

choice of as living conditions added to their suspicions as if this contributed to his odd behavior.

War, ignorance and the loss of the diasporic roots all contributed to Shadrack’s illness and

isolation.
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Works Cited

Klingman, Caety. “Analysis of: Lewis’ African Tradition in Toni Morrison’s Sula.” Caety

Klingman’s Content Resources, 6 July 2021. https://klingmanmat2021.wordpress

.com/2021/07/06/african-tradition-in-toni-morrisons-sula/.

Lewis, Vashti Crutcher. “African Tradition in Toni Morrison’s Sula.” Phylon, vol.

48, no.1, 1987, pp. 91–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/275004.

McKenzie, A G. “Anaesthetic and Other Treatments of Shell Shock: World War I and

Beyond.” Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, vol. 158, no. 1, 2012, pp. 29-33.

doi:10.1136/jramc-158-01-07.

Morrison, Toni. Sula. 2004. Print.