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Sula Essay

Decent Essays

1. How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

The year of 1919 through the year of 1965 was not an easy period in Medallion, Ohio. There was a little town called The Bottom and it is described by the author of Sula, Toni Morrison. Morrison provides information about the community and its people through Sula. The author does not only provide information about the town but also describes the ambience of the area and how the public was treated during this time. In the novel, the women of The Bottom are not described in a desirable way due to racism, segregation and the fact that men were thought of as superior to any women. Morrison establishes this message throughout the novel successfully. Readers later realize the different …show more content…

During the years of 1919 through 1965 when the story of Sula takes place, the only job that is believed to be correct for women is being a maid, and their husbands are the ones in charge of bringing money back to the house. Women not only had to tolerate working as maids, but they also had to suffer with their husbands betraying them and being unfaithful. Nel is perfect example of a black African American woman in Sula who is only allowed to work as a maid, while she has to bear with Jude (her husband) leaving her alone with their children after betraying her with Sula. When the author describes what Nel went through, she states: “Because Jude’s leaving was so complete, the full responsibility of the household was Nel’s….. So she took to cleaning rather than fret away…… And just this past year she got a better job working as a chambermaid in the same hotel Jude had worked in. The tips were only fair….” (138-139). Nel is just an example, out of all the women from The Bottom who had to work as maids in order to maintain their families. For several families in Sula, women depended on their husbands and their husbands were in charge of taking the money home. Afterwards, their husbands betrayed them and they had to work only as maids and get money in order to maintain the family. An example of this is how Nel had to work to maintain her children after Jude betrayed

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