The Role and Influence of Community in the Novel Sula by Toni Morison - Essay Example

Toni Morison presents the case of the community of Bottom in Ohio. The community is mainly made up of Americans of African descent. The novel ‘Sula’ reveals many differences in the social perceptions that ruin the community but with positive outcomes.
The community of people living together is supposed to be helpful to one another. Looking at the scenario at Bottom as presented by Morison, the people are from divergent backgrounds despite the dominance of the black people. There appears a white farmer who wanted to be of help to his slave by promising them freedom and a piece of land if they could accomplish an assigned task. Sure enough, the slave worked very hard to finish the task and was given freedom and a piece of land. In another incidence, Sula and Nel are helpful to each other during their adolescence days (Morison 56). Despite the accident that happens when Sula swung a neighborhood boy who fell in the river and drowned, the two friends conceal the ordeal. The community despite the nature of the extraordinary belief accepts Shadrack’s ritual. All these incidences depict a society that stands for one another and is able to embrace each other despite the strangeness of the thoughts and ideologies they uphold.
The community has a role to shape the way children are brought up. Considering Nel and Sula, it is apparent that the perceptions and the beliefs of the family have been pushed down to their daughters. Nel’s family believes in social convections that are so conserved within the family line. Helene, her mother wants her daughter to specifically adhere to the family traditions. Despite the nature of the family, her grandmother, Rochelle is a unique woman that has beaten odds. She has deviated from family traditions. This is a rare case given that society subjects its members to intense pressure to comply with their beliefs. In contrast, Sula’s family has been shaped differently by the beliefs upheld by the family. Here they embrace a socially free way of living, embracing any and every belief at free will. This makes Sula end up not marrying and engaging in multi-cultural affairs.
The role of women in society is clearly brought forth all over the novel. The contrast between the two young women, Sula and Nel is centred on the importance of their feminine relatives in the adoption of the beliefs they uphold and the actions they engage with. The noisy and busy nature of Sula’s family is characteristic of her mother and grandmother both of who live in the same neighbourhood. It seems the freewill nature embraced by this family encourages individuals to develop or spoil themselves according to their deeds. On the contrary, Nel’s family imposes some restrictions on its members hence making it difficult to adhere to the requirements (Morison 43). Her grandmother’s opposition that resulted in her engagement with prostitution reveals the result of the family beliefs. Male characters have taken a backstage role while the women seem to be shaping the community.
Social and moral development is attributed to the impact of the community in Bottom. Differences in perceptions create rifts and sometimes unity among individuals. Focussing on the tragic death of Chicken Little, Sula and Nel remain silent on the incidence, an indicator that some members of the society through their mutual friendship can hide an incident; this is a societal evil that could have been exposed. Sula’s friendship with Nel is severed when Nel finds her naked with Jude. Sula’s behaviour of having affairs with men from all races is seen as an aberration from the community's way of doing things (Morison 58). To make matters worse she gets to the length of sleeping with Nel’s legitimately married husband. She causes a break up of a family.
The author depicts the overall contribution of the society to its failure and social stratification, as was the case with Bottom. Sure enough as the name of the locality was, the community that lived in the region was at the bottom of things. The community is being more ruined and it seems that its goals will take so long to be realized. The young characters in the novel are constantly talking about the community despite having ignored the hills to the poor and the old. The social and economic stratification is evident where the rich white people occupy the fertile and the best places in the land of Bottom. The stratification is emphasized by the author’s words, “ now there weren’t any places left, just separate houses with separate televisions and separate telephones and less and less dropping” (Morison 166).
The author clearly places the influence and the role of the community at the centre of his narration in the novel. The Bottom community has had profound effects on the way individuals interact.