Sula+-+end+of+book+notes

End of Sula notes

1937 –
 * Sula comes back – plague of robins
 * Sula puts Eva in a home
 * Eva seems to understand that Sula has no moral compass
 * Eva believes that Sula “watches”
 * Seeing vs. watching
 * Involvement
 * Sula betrays Nel
 * After the betrayal
 * It’s clear that Sula and Nel are opposites
 * Sula says hell is anything lasting forever
 * Nel says hell is change
 * Nel is left with the ball just out of sight
 * Soft, quiet, gray, dirty
 * Left with the terrible effort it took “not to look”
 * She thinks it’s her love for Jude

1939 –
 * Whole town turns against Sula
 * Start remembering unreal (devilish) things about her
 * p. 118 – paragraph analyzing Sula
 * hearing Hannah say she didn’t like her
 * taught her you can’t trust others
 * Death of Chicken Little
 * Taught her you can’t trust yourself
 * Sula does finally love or crave someone – Ajax
 * He doesn’t want commitment
 * She never did before

1940 -
 * Sula is dying, Nel comes to check on her
 * p. 146 – Sula tells Nel, maybe Sula was the good one
 * Sula dies: “Wait’ll I tell Nel.” Death was painless.

1941 –
 * Sula’s funeral – people see it as a good sign: things must be looking up!
 * With Sula’s meanness gone, people are back to being mean to each other.
 * Shadrack’s memory of Sula
 * He says “Always” to comfort her with permanence
 * He doesn’t remember Chicken Little
 * He’s not interested in National Suicide Day anymore
 * He starts parade anyway, without enthusiasm
 * People start following
 * Rare chance at sunshine, laughter, hope
 * Parade gets to the tunnel site
 * Was once seen as a chance at money – but never for them
 * Jump the fence – start to destroy it
 * Into the tunnel they start to destroy the whole thing
 * Ground thaws, tunnel collapses
 * People die
 * Deweys are never found!
 * Shadrack survives with his bell!

1965 –
 * Nel remembering how people used to be
 * The Bottom is no longer the black part of town
 * Nel visits Eva – still alive!
 * Eva talks about the death of Chicken Little
 * Tells Nel that Nel is the same as Sula
 * Nel says, “I didn’t watch. I just saw it.”
 * Nel remembers Sula’s death
 * So rejected by the community
 * White people care for her body
 * Ends with Nel realizing she’s lost Sula
 * Fuzzy blob was love for Sula

So – what’s going on?
 * What happens to someone with no rules?
 * What happens to their community?