This week’s blog post takes a deeper look into pages 30-66 in Toni Morrison’s “Sula”. Up to this point of the reading we have been able to learn a little bit about each character and have been able to see a few different interactions between everyone. Something that has really stood out so far is the in depth narration and description of different scenes and characters throughout. It has pretty much come natural to this point of the book how easy it is to paint that picture of what is going on. We’re able to do this because of the descriptive words, and in depth character analysis of certain settings and situations. Many books out there have a movie that goes along with them and it is always interesting to see how the characters interact with one another along with scene development. Right now this story does not need that because of how in depth and easy it is to picture each character and setting. Think back to earlier in the semester when we were reading “A Raisin In The Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry. The book was great and had amazing character / story development but lacked that ability to paint a picture in the reader’s mind for what their situation looked like. When I’m reading Sula I have these thoughts and images constantly running through my head about how it looks because of the constant use of descriptive words and imagery.
We’re at a point in the book where we are slowly learning about who the main characters are like Sula, Eva, Boyboy, and more. Toni Morrison does such a good job describing situations and characteristics. She does this by using certain words and phrases that give the reader an idea of what is really going on in the scene. Off rip Morrison immediately starts talking about Sula’s house stating “The creator and sovereign of this enormous house with the four seckel-pear trees in the front yard and the single elm in the back yard was Eva Peace, who sat in a wagon on the third floor directing the lives of her children, friends, strays, and a constant stream of borders” (Sula, p. 30). While this isn’t a crucial part of the chapter it gives us readers the basics of some of the characteristics of a pretty important setting along with using descriptive vocab like “enormous” and painting us a picture of what Eva was doing in the front yard. Moving to another example of in depth narration would be when stated “Quickly, as the whoosh of flames engulfed him, she shut the door and made her slow and painful journey back to the top of the house” (Sula, p. 48). This scene is quite eventful as it talks about Eva intentionally setting a fire. Morrison again does a great job of using descriptive words like “engulfed”, this gives us readers a picture of what that may have looked like as Eva made her escape out of the room. The description of a character can be huge for a story’s overall progression because you get to learn and understand a little more about who they are and how their role impacts the progression of the story. Throughout this story we see so many descriptions of physical and characteristic traits that give us a deeper understanding of the book. To start off we are talking about Eva’s last child Plum, and what he was like after returning from war. It is about how he had sent letters talking about coming home soon but was unable to. A quote that really stood out was “Finally some two or three days after Christmas, he arrived with just the shadow of his old dip-down walk. His hair had been neither cut nor combed in months, his clothes were pointless and he had no socks. But he did have a black bag, a paper sack, and a sweet, sweet smile” (Sula, p. 45). This was a textbook character description from Morrison and it helped me understand much more that emotion all the characters had in that scene. Everyone was happy to see him and welcomed him home. As the reader we can see what that room looks like when he walks in, a worn out man in rough shape coming back from the war just happy he could see his family more than anything. This is what has shown all across this book so far, super in depth descriptions of characteristics and scenes.
Overall Toni Morrison has made it a great read and pleasant experience as a reader being able to analyze her scenes and characters. I wouldn’t say it is a pattern but most definitely a common theme throughout the book being able to analyze and see what kind of the person the main characters are and paint that image in your head about where they physically are in the book.
Discussion Questions:
- Has Toni Morrison’s use of descriptive words helped deepen your understanding for what is going on in the book so far? Explain.
- As a reader is it easier for you to take in information from a book when you’re able to paint that imaginary picture in your head of the setting, characters, etc?
Works Cited:
- (Morrison, T. (1998). Sula)
