Sula Peace is characterized as evil, by the community of “The Bottom” in Toni Morrison’s Novel, “Sula.” Although Sula is a main character, and the book carries her name, the character is an enigma, and almost does not take the shape of protagonist or antagonist. Looking at simple definitions of protagonist, Sula is a central character and she also helps to move the novel; even if considered evil she could possibly be the protagonist.
Shaping Sula
According to Baruch Hochman, in Character in Literature, “The ‘protagonist’ is meant to be like us and is seen from many vantage points, in many situations, so that the many facets and possibilities are revealed within his or her personality. In a sense the protagonist is normally quite “round”. Sula Peace was seen in different situations, but she never really grew or had any different reactions. The “many facets and possibilities that should be revealed” according to Baruch aren’t given by Sula.
In the text “New World Woman: Toni Morrison’s Sula, by Maggie Galehouse, it is revealed that Sula’s character is shaped by two incidents in the beginning; a comment made by her mother, which was basically that she did like her daughter, but she loved her, and in the death of Chicken Little, a little boy whose character is introduce primarily for the creation of an incident.
“The first experience taught her that there was no other that you could count on; the second that there was no self to count on either.” (Sula, pg. 118-9)
Lack of Structure and Traditions
According to Maggie Galehouse, “The foundation of Sula’s character is, Morrison writes, a lack of foundation, a structurelessnes that affects every thought, every action, and every interaction that Sula has.” Sula has no care and this is seen in her actions. But it is this structurelessness that moves the community and moves the novel. Being that she is seen as evil, and this evil causes reaction in the community, they feel the Sula is against them. Sula and her family have long been the antithesis of the community. Conventionality and traditonalness of family and women is the normal of the “The Bottom”.
“The novel parallels two distinct matrilineal genealogies of class, and color: Eva, Hannah, and Sula (grandmother, mother, daughter) Peace, chart a working-class history of black women from the post-reconstruction era, from 1895-1940; the light-skinned Rochelle, Helene, and Nel Wright (grandmother, mother and daughter) represent the bourgeois ascendance from and disavowal of subaltern black origins rendered shameful and inaccessible by the bourgeois morality of domesticity and respectability.” (Grewal, pg. 47)
Conclusion
The Peace family is frowned upon. This could be evidence that Sula is the antagonist. Just looking at the fact that she goes against the traditional view of the community, and therefore she could be the antagonist, but the novel is not about the community it is about Sula. Therefore, Sula Peace is the protagonist.
Souces:
"New World Woman": Toni Morrison's Sula by, Maggie Galehouse
Circles of Sorrow, Lines of Struggle by, Gurleen Grewal
Character in Literature by, Baruch Hochman
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