Sula Essay

Nel has come to visit Sula on her deathbed. After picking up her prescription pain medication, and trying to comfort her dying friend, Nel confronts Sula about her behavior. Nel finally gains the courage to confront Sula about her affair with Nel’s husband Jude. The discussion becomes heated and Nel tells Sula that she has no one in her life. No one loves her and she will die alone. In the passage below, Sula is responding to Nel’s accusations. “Sula raised herself up on her elbows. Her face glistened with the dew of fever. She opened her mouth though to say something, then fell back on the pillows and sighed. ‘Oh, they’ll love me alright. It will take time, but they’ll love me.’ The sound of her voice was as soft and distant as the look in her eyes. ‘After all the old woman have lain with teen-agers; when all the young girls have slept with their old drunk uncles; when all the white woman kiss all the black ones; when the guards have raped all the jailbirds and after all the whores make love to their grannies; after all the faggots get their mothers’ trim; when Lindbergh sleeps with Bessie Smith and Norma Shearer makes it with Stepin Fetchit; after all the dogs have fucked the cats and every weathervane on every barn flies off the roof to mount the hogs... then there’ll be a little love left over for me. And I know just what it will feel like’”(145). This passage makes me feel like Sula is a courageous hopeful girl. The way Sula Stood up for herself made it seem like she really does know what she’s talking about and that with the right attitude it can eventually be. Sula’s response also made me feel like I can apply that type of authority to my life. Nel’s accusation angered me a little, not really what she said but when she said it. I can’t understand