As you prepare for the final exam, you might want to consider some of the following ways to view Sula.

1.      Sula’s good deeds. Deconstruct the casting of Sula as a negative member of the town’s population. Look at the changes which take place in The Bottom in 1939. It begins with Teapot’s mom. She gives up her drinking and playing around to become a good mother. Look at the changes that take place among the other townspeople. Why do they do it? What unites them? Is Sula the classic scapegoat? Does the town change after her death?

2.      A comparison and contrast between Jude leaving Nel and Ajax leaving Sula is very interesting space to work. On page 104, notice how Morrison uses the tie as a phallic symbol to represent Nel’s lost intimacy. Nel studies what he has left behind and then moves into her bathroom, which I always call her private hell (106). On page 134, look at Sula when she realizes that Ajax is never coming back to her. “He had left nothing but his stunning absence.”

3.      Discuss the symbolism of the scene where Nel and Sula dig the holes in the ground. (57-59)

4.      Discuss Eva’s love for her children. (32-35)

5.      What does sex mean to Sula (122 and 129) and/or how does it differ from the way Nel sees it? Just Sula’s way of seeing it may be enough for the essay.

6.      Is Sula a masculine figure? Is she a woman who lives her life like a man? (142)

7.      Did Sula really take Jude away from Nel, or is it a deeper issue at play here? (145)

8.      The men always leave, one way or another. Why? (143)

9.      Discus the matriarchal patterns we see in Sula.

10.  Feminist pages to check out: 119,121, 123, 125, 129, 138, 142, 143, 145.

11.  Deconstruction: 146, 153, 158, 160, 161.

12.  Discuss the structural symmetry of Sula, how it moves in a circle and the story flows back into itself, never coming to a stop.

13.  What is the symbolism of Sula’s birthmark?

14.  What is the significance of National Suicide Day? (160)

15.  Psychoanalytical: 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 138, 161; and archetypal: 153, 158, 160, 161

16. Sula and Nel come to realize at an early age that because they are neither white nor male, most freedoms and triumphs will be denied them throughout their lives. Where is the Marxism in that?