Theme of Motherhood in Toni Morrison's Sula Essay Example
Nel and Sula are two different women with two different upbringings, going through the motions of life. A 1973 novel written by Toni Morrison Sula. While Nel and Sula have two different relationships with their mothers’, Nel promises herself to never lose individuality and Sula having a lifelong impression from her mother, these difference in these two women’s experiences with their mothers has led them to become a certain way in the end. Mothers play an important part in their kid’s life; they shape different views in the world and set up values for their children. “Therefore: the quality of mother and daughter relationship plays important roles in the development of self-esteem (Douglass, 2005)”.
An important detail about Nels’s mother, Helene is that she was raised by her grandmother because her mother is a prostitute. Helene distances herself from her past as soon as possible. Due to Helene’s trouble-some upbringings, she raises Nel with fear because she doesn’t want her to have the lifestyle, she grew up in. Helene controls Nel’s life and makes her see the world how it is. Early on at a young age, Nel sees her mother being humiliated by the racist white conductor, forcing her to squat and urinate in front of him and his white passengers. After that Helene receives disgusted looks from fellow black passengers. Since that moment she promised herself to never be the target of hateful male gazes and to never lose her individuality. Returning from her New Orleans trip with her mother, Nel comes back with a newfound sensation of individuality saying “I want… I want to be… wonderful. Oh, Jesus, make me wonderful” (Morrison 32). Deciding she doesn’t want to be under her mom’s discipline anymore, she becomes the opposite of her mom which leads her to befriends Sula, a friendship that her mother doesn’t approve of.
Now including Sulas relationship with her mother, Hannah Peace, it’s very different from Nels and Helene’s relationship. Sula grew up neglected both by her mother and grandmother. So due to her disapproval towards Sula, Hannah liked to sleep with men either if they were married or not. Her mother sleeping with random men had a big impact on Sula, she picked up the negative habits, which resulted in Sula having sex with her best friend’s husband, Jude. Since Sula lacked a mother’s love because her mom was never giving the nurturing aspect of love, she found love and comfort in sex. Hannah loves her daughter Sula, but she doesn’t like her, saying “Sure you do. You love her, like I love Sula. I just don't like her. That's the difference’’ (Morrison 58). Sula loved her mother deeply but not anymore after what she just heard. Since that remark, it changed Sula, she became a whole new person. Sula lacked a mother’s love because her mom was never giving the nurturing aspect of love. The love between mother and daughter just wasn’t reciprocated.
“The novel also explores various representations of motherhood…” (Beaulieu, Elizabeth (2022, February 27). You can see that Sula and Nel grew up differently. Sula and Nel are influenced by their mothers and their personalities are an outcome of the maternal care or neglect experienced by them, as children. As much as Nel vowed to herself to change and the remark that came from Sulas own mother that changed her, they never really change at all, they became just like their mothers. The life of Sula and Nel is under the not-so-great influence of their mother’s past.
To sum up, the life paths of mothers and daughters in Sula are greatly intertwined. Even though some daughters, at one point in their lives want to be completely different from their mothers, in the end, they come to realize that they failed. In the end, the mother-daughter relationship was common because they wanted the best for their children, but their kids ended up being just like the people they didn’t want to become. This made an impact with the change of motherhood as Sula and Nel got older they fell right into their mother’s shoes.
