Life: The main character of the novel, Sula, has always been in search of true love. She tried to seek compassion and love from many different sources, but every time had to face disappointment and failure. She had relationships and contacts with many people but the outcome was always unpleasant. In her childhood she came close to Nel and eventually they both became best friends. The family background of both girls

From girlhood," Sula shows a natural gift for daring, Lorie Watkins Fulton writes in African-American Review (Fulton, 2006). Sula in fact persuades Nel to join up with her in order to confront the bullies on Carpenter's Road; and when Sula shows the guts to pull her grandma's paring knife from her pocket and slice a piece of her finger off, the boys star "open-mouthed at the wound" (Morrison 54). If I

As a result, Hannah has "no experiential knowledge or maternal role model for this aspect of the mother-daughter bond" (233). Hannah is more concerned with being who she wants to be than being a loving, nurturing mother. Eva is the grandmother from which these characteristics flow. She is the woman that is tough because she must be. She makes sacrifices for her children but she does not necessarily bend to

With real sense of self, she will have a skewed look at the world around her. In her eyes, she is empty, as is the world. Nel is grounded but this does not mean she is complete. Sula is labeled a wild child because she is not conventional like those around her. She moves to get herself away from Bottom and has several casual affairs with men. When she returns,

The moment when Sula accidentally kills Chicken Little plays an important role in her relationship with Nel. While both girls are inclined to feel guilt as a result of their involvement in the child's death, Sula believes that her action was caused by her destructive nature and that it is perfectly natural for her to put across immoral behavior. In contrast, Nel gradually detaches herself from the event and

When pushed too far, when too greatly damaged, when the soul has been taken away, when the resilience is gone, all that is left is the act of birth, the cold and empty soul, and a generalized feeling of resentment and anger coming from mother and directed at life and history and the self. Faulkner's Addie's rotting body is an act of revenge, Eva's burning of her son is