Good Vs Evil (Response to “Sula”)

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Good Vs Evil (Response to “Sula”)

The novel “Sula” written by Toni Morrison presents a contrasting theme on the definition of evil and good. In the story, the character Nel represents good while Sula represents evil. Sula represents the opposite view of good as depicted in her action which contradicts with the traditional societal norms in which one is supposed to live up to a certain degree of expectation. Through analysis of the two contradicting concepts of Sula and Nel regarding evil, a conclusion can be made that evil is only a subjective view of society. As such, the standard of integrity does not differentiate virtue from evil, rather an individual can be regarded as good or evil on the basis of individual view and bias. 

In most societies there are clear moral guidelines that control what is good or evil, however, this doesn’t mean that the ethical background is uncertain. As illustrated in the novel, being good or evil is only a page apart. This clearly depicts that individuals can be grouped as those who have committed sins and those who have not committed sins yet. This means anybody can be a very evil person, whereas that evil person can turn out to be as righteous as a saint.  After Sula’s death, for example, inhabitants of the Bottom village turned back to their former habits of leaving their spouses, beating up children, disregarding their elders just as Sula did. This consequently resulted in the whole village becoming lifeless and barren. 

A person’s failure to withstand an evil deed doesn’t mean he/she is not evil. In the novel, for instance, Nel is viewed as an unobtrusively blameless woman in the village of Bottom who was raised without a lot of challenges contrary to Sula. However, after her justification of Chicken Little’s death as a mere accident, Nel turns out to be hypocritical when she chose to hide the truth.  During Sula’s regret with guilt and fear for killing Chicken Little, Nel seeks an excuse to get away, far from discovering that she was an accomplice of the crime by neglecting the situation. The death of Chicken Little not only shows Nel’s selfish side that covers the difficult situation by offering consolation to Sula, but it as well depicts how dump she was since she thinks that the best solution for Sula is by neglecting the situation.  Although Nel’s efforts to silence to the truth makes Sula comfortable and peaceful but does her generous contemplation for Sula further holds satisfactory justification for their being dishonest in the face of the blameless kid’s family going through a great amount of agony over their loss? Thus, we can learn from this incident that disregarding other people’s wrongs could be worse than committing the wrong.   

Contrary to Nel, Sula’s deeds, behavior, and footstep is related to bad luck to villagers in the Bottom. Villagers detested her influence and disregarded her audacity. With such perspective on Sula, the people of the Bottom avoided her as much as possible. However, the reverse of the distrustful distresses of Sula is that villagers are prompted with a great deal of pressure to conduct themselves in a righteous way in an effort to be known dissimilar with her. This scene depicts the irony that bad behavior and the evil tendency of a person can become a positive driving force of others, while good conduct can instead influence nuisance. 

According to the people of Bottom, the dominant perspective of evil was a society’s conception. Basing on the moral guidelines of society, good and evil can be reflected through society’s response to Sula.  On her return back to Bottom after she ran away for ten years, she is greeted in a similar way like would greet a pest, a plague, or an illness. Morrison’s novel depicts society’s contempt for her when Sula’s arrival is described as “accompanied by a plaque of robins” (Morrison 89).  The time she spent in Bottom is associated with other evils such as the “floods, white people, tuberculosis, famine and ignorance” (Morrison 90) while her stay in the town is regarded as “evil days” (Morrison 89). 

In the novel “Sula”, the author is able to demonstrate the link between good, evil, and guilt by showing how they are relative to each other and their mutual happenings. When she compares good and evil, Sula says “Being good to somebody is just like being mean to somebody. Risky. You don’t get nothing for it” (Morrison 145). In Morrison’s novel, good and evil are compared as if they are equal and that is how Morison structured her novel. Eva’s burning of Plum for example is intricate conjunction of motherly love and practicality and can’t be described as simply being a righteous act or an evil one. Similarly, the death of Chicken Little poses an abstruse situation from which Sula and Nel’s feelings are unclear. Upon Sula’s death, she questions what does good mean and she gives a suggestion that what is considered evil could in reality be good. 

Conclusively, in a syncopated style of Morrison’s writing and the morally abstruse display of the characters in the novel, can make a reader doubt morals and think about them from a greater perspective.   

Work Cited 

Morrison, Toni. Sula. SPERLING & KUPFER, 2012.