Sula (1973)

Abstract

Both The Bluest Eye and Sula involve an incident in which a gang of bullies is defeated. The difference between the two respective episodes is indicative of the difference between the two novels. In The Bluest Eye, the threat posed by the bullies draws Claudia, Frieda, Pecola and Maureen together until Claudia and Frieda become unable to forgive the lighter-skinned Maureen for assuming white standards of physical beauty which they envy. Maureen’s subsequent articulation of her contempt of their black skin, in which blackness and ugliness are perceived as synonymous, in turn epitomises the central concern of the novel with how black culture is being destroyed by the impact of white norms upon it. In Sula, the threat posed by the gang to Sula and Nel brings out Sula’s reserves of strength and her unpredictability which help focus the novel’s concern with these elements. Sula’s response also provides a further example of behaviour in the novel which is explicable in terms of an African rather than an American model of self.