To Define a Woman

To Define a Woman

Womanhood is a subjective term, shaping itself into each community in a unique way. In Toni Morrison's Sula, the author focuses on a young black girl named Sula, who matures into a strong and determined woman in the face of adversity and the distrust, even hatred, of her by the black community with whom she lives. Hannah raises Nel to accept, without question, the passive roles that have been set up by the Bottom for women to fill. Morrison's characters develop in there own ways as women, and by the end of the book the reader is privy to the differences in womanhood between these women, and how The Bottom views each character's definition of the idea. Morrison explores the possibilities and consequences of defining womanhood in various ways within The Bottom, and shows that the community is ultimately changed by how its women define themselves.

Throughout the novel, women's perceptions of love are ambiguous, and never clearly defined. For example, to Eva, love is being patriarchally maternal; it gives her license to kill the drug-addicted Plum. Eva is, most likely, intentionally similar to the biblical Eve, the mother of all living things. This explains the variety of people living in her home. Although only some of the inhabitants are boarders, Eva still involves herself maternally in their lives. She constantly offers unsolicited advice to new brides on keeping a man. Even with her physical disability, she flirts unashamedly with all the men who surround

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her. However, these relationships are never consummated, which contrasts to the sexual behavior of her daughter Hannah, who consummates her liaisons