The novel is drawing to an end but I don't think there has been much change between Sula and Nel. In the beginning they seemed inseparable and were like the dynamic duo but there were sharp differences in their upbringing and their goals in life. Although Sula embodies the pariah in the Medallion community, it doesn't necessarily equate to freedom or independence. It seemed to me that Sula is still caged by her past and her lack of emotion fuels her apathy and disdain for the world. On the other hand, Nel seems to be the only one who understood Sula but at the same time never understood why Sula thought the way she did.
"Lonely ain't it?"
"Yes, but my lonely is mine. Now your lonely is somebody else's. Made by somebody else and handed to you. Ain't that something? A secondhand lonely." (143)
I think the quote above accurately points out the difference between Nel and Sula. As colored women in Medallion, they both experience loneliness. However their loneliness is different in that Nel was constantly searching for something to be attached to, while Sula was lonely in her own decision of separating herself away from the others. No matter how "independent" Sula was from the rest of the Medallion community, she couldn't escape from the shared loneliness that the others experience. Through Sula's perspective, women were lonely because their existence depended on marriage and children and men were lonely because they were always seeking for another women to fulfill their needs. However, Sula cultivated her own loneliness inside of her and with her arrogance she holds her loneliness with pride. Perhaps there's no such thing as true independence or freedom for the colored women in Medallion.
Although I agree that Sula cultivated her own loneliness I don't necessarily agree that that loneliness is the same as the ones others experience. I actually think that Sula is independent and very different from the rest of the women. Yes she is lonely, but she chooses to be that way, she knows what it entails. The other women, they don't want to be lonely, they want a man, but the man always leave them. They're lonely because they rely on unreliable men. Sula knows this, she is conscious of this fact. She doesn't allow it to stand in her way of being her own person.
ReplyDelete