Sula

 Literature offers universal insight. Through it, one can analyze an author and his or her characters from a perspective unique to that individual. A person's opinions about a novel are based on their experiences, not the author's. A reader's determination regarding a writer's literature is completely objective. With this impartiality, a common idea holds true:   true character is best determined through identification. It is easiest to label something by comparing it to something else. Literature represents this concept fully. While reading, a person identifies with a character by attaching them to somebody they actually know. If this is to be taken a step further, a reader is able to use some characters in a novel to better understand others. For the purposes of this exercise, Sula will be used to highlight this practice. Within its pages, Toni Morrison molds her characters so that the theme, helplessness, can be attributed to the emotion that comes with it. Together, Sula and her grandmother, Eva, are used by Morrison to highlight the convey the same thoughts and feelings. Throughout this novel, Sula and Eva are presented so that the author may impart the passion true hopelessness is due. In order for this to happen, the personality traits and literary actions of the two must be compared and contrasted.
A sharp distinction between the two can be made relating to family. To call Sula free-spirited would be overly subtle. She succumbed to much and cared about little. For her, life was a perpetual exercise in selfish indulgence. She did not understand the consequences of her actions nor did she care to ponder the impact her vicious spontaneity may have on the people closest to her. Relationships were destroyed in Sula's wake and she maintained to lineal or emotional ties to her kin. Of the family she abandoned was Eva Peace, her grandmother. Eva was fervent when it came to family. Nothing was more important to her than the welfare of her household. A summary of...