Sula Toni Morrison
Sula is a 1973 novel by African American writer Toni Morrison. It tells the story of the friendship between Sula and Nel, examining issues of good and evil and the personification of each in the various characters.
The story opens in The Bottom, an black community in Ohio. The Bottom got it name because white slaveholder tricked his former slave into choosing an inferior plot of land. However, a vibrant community has sprung up, and now whites want to take over the land and build a golf course.
Much of the novel concerns the families of Nel and Sula. Nel’s family is very conventional, except for her grandmother, a former prostitute. Sula comes from a far less conventional family. She lives with her grandmother and mother, both of whom are regarded as loose women by townsfolk. Nel and Sula become fast friends until one day when they are playing with Chicken Little. Sula is swinging the young boy by his arms when he falls into the river and drowns. While the girls never tell anyone of the accident, they begin to grow apart afterwards.
Nel eventually settles into a conventional life, while Sula leaves town. Rumors swirl regarding Sula’s interracial affairs, and when she returns home, she has an affair with Nel’s husband. The townspeople brand her evil, but it is their hatred that knits them closer. Later, Nel comes to realize that she had consciously labeled Sula as the evil one in their relationship.