End+of+Sula+notes

Sula – end of book notes
 * What about a book that doesn’t follow a straight arc?
 * Some ideas might not fit our standard patterns – but it does make them harder to figure out.
 * How do we find meaning?
 * What if don’t admire the characters?
 * Setting – Medallion, Ohio
 * This isn’t the South
 * Standard American segregated town
 * Book starts with Shadrack
 * National Suicide Day
 * Not opposed to death
 * Doesn’t like that it’s unexpected
 * Feels that way about life in general
 * Then we follow Helene
 * This is Nel’s story, too
 * Nel’s childhood
 * Very proper, clean, strict
 * Not the house of prostitution where her mother was raised
 * In this tidy place, what is she lacking?
 * Something unexpected?
 * P. 29 – girls in each other’s houses
 * Sula appreciates Helene’s order
 * Nel appreciates Hannah’s disorder
 * Who is Eva in the community?
 * Sense of responsibility to others
 * Lets people stay, has renters
 * Takes in stray children
 * Eva vs. Hannah vs. Sula
 * What’s going on with the Deweys?
 * Eva takes away their individuality
 * They’re happy to lose it
 * Aren’t they a hint?
 * Telling us that everything isn’t real
 * So, what else isn’t real?
 * What about Sula’s amorality?

Very end of Sula notes! 1937 – After Sula betrays Nel 1939 - 1940 –  1941  1965 -
 * What about Sula and Nel?
 * Sula provides what Nel needs as a girl
 * When does Sula disappear?
 * Nel’s marriage
 * Reappears ten years later
 * When Nel’s life is settled, has purpose
 * Sula brings change
 * Nel’s version of hell
 * How many people are they?
 * To whom are we responsible?
 * Sula comes back – plague of robins
 * Sula puts Eva in a home
 * Sula betrays Nel
 * They’re clearly opposites:
 * Sula said hell was anything lasting forever
 * Nel says hell is change
 * Nel sees the ball – quiet, gray, dirty
 * p. 109 – “That was the terrible part, the effort it took not to look.”
 * Whole town turns against Sula
 * Starts remembering unreal (devilish) things about her
 * p. 118 – “The evidence against Sula was contrived, but their conclusions about her were not.”
 * This paragraph analyzes Sula – 2 events in her life
 * Hearing Hannah say she didn’t like her
 * Death of Chicken Little
 * p. 121 – “her craving for the other half of her equation”
 * Sula is in love with Ajax
 * He doesn’t want a commitment
 * She never did before!
 * Sula is dying, Nel comes to check on her
 * p. 146 – Sula tells Nel, maybe Nel wasn’t the good one
 * Sula dies: “Wait’ll I tell Nel.”
 * 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.
 * p. 157 – Shadrack’s memory of Sula
 * he says, “Always” to comfort her with permanence
 * no memory of Chicken Little!
 * He’s not interested in Suicide Day anymore
 * But he starts the parade anyway, without enthusiasm
 * People start following – they’re laughing with the sunshine – hope
 * They get to the tunnel site
 * The one chance of money – but they never get any of it
 * Jump the fence, start to destroy it
 * Go inside the tunnel to destroy the whole thing
 * Ground thaws – tunnel collapses
 * People die
 * The deweys bodies are never found!
 * Shadrack survives with his bell!
 * Nel remembering how people used to be
 * The Bottom no longer the black part of town
 * Nel visits Eva (still alive! Too tough to die!)
 * Eva talks about death of Chicken Little
 * Tells Nel she’s the same as Sula
 * p. 170 – “I did not watch it. I just saw it.”
 * Nel remembers Sula’s death
 * So rejected by the black community
 * White people care for her body
 * Ends with her realizing she’s lost Sula