Sula 79-94

1. Put into your own words why Jude wants so much to get a job working on the proposed new road. Try to get below the surface.

2. Notice Jude's motivation for asking Nel to marry him, and hers to marry him (82-3). Do you think it's common for people to ask others to marry them for such a non-Romantic reason, or unusual?

3. Ajax says about women, "All they want, man, is they own misery. Ax em to die for you and they yours for life" (83). What do you think of Ajax's theory? Note: Ajax is the same character who applied the expression "pig meat" to Sula and Nel when they were younger.

4. On p. 90, Morrison describes the world-view of the people of the Bottom ("What was taken by outsiders . . . .it was beneath them.") How, in your own words, does their world view differ from that of the people you know?

5. In the same paragraph on p. 90, the author says "they determined . . . to survive floods, white people, tuberculosis, famine and ignorance." Comment on the order of the things on this list.

6. Sula, on her return, gets into an argument with her grandmother, Eva. What does this argument say about the character of each?

7. What possible explanation is there for Sula's committing her grandmother to an old age home? How evil is Sula acting?

Sula 67-78

Kentucky Wonders, the kind of beans Hannah sorts through as she talks to Eva.


1. Why might Hannah be asking her mother Eva if she ever loved her?

2. Might there be a connection between Hannah saying that she doesn't like Sula (57), even though she loves her, and what happens at the river (the drowning of Chicken)? Explain.

3. Why do you suppose Eva has such a strong reaction to Hannah's question?

4. Compare Eva's harsh reaction to Hannah's question about her loving her children to her throwing herself out the window when she sees Hannah burning.

5. This reading assignment contained shocking horror and violence (if it was hard on you, sorry!) Is there a way to explain how such horror and violence fit in with the rest of the story?

6. Was there a particular sentence that you feel deserves comment? Comment on it.

Sula 56-66

1. Note that Nel is teasing toward Chicken, while Sula is kind. Can you make a guess as to what motivates each to behave the way she does?

2. Chicken goes under water and is gone--suddenly drowned. Can you connect this incident with any other part of the book?

3. Can anyone make sense of the meeting between Sula and Shadrack?

4. Can you explain what is racist about the bargeman's reaction to finding Chicken's body? "Ham's sons" refers to dark-skinned people with African ancestry, named after one of Noah's sons (from the Bible).

Sula 41-56

Heroin being cooked in a spoon


1. Find an example of irony. of whatever kind, and explain.

OR

2, Find an example of a smile or matephor, and say what is being compared to what, and try to say what the metaphor or simile suggests about the author's way of seeing the world.

OR

3. Compare Hannah Peace with Helene, Nel's mother (who is featured in pages 17-29).

Sule 29-41

The kind of shoe Eva might have worn, but only one.

Continuing to keep our focus on language, can you find an example of diction (word choice) that seems to stand out or matter? What makes it stand out or matter? OR find an image that seems to matter, and explain why. As usual, if yours has been taken already, try to take another, unless you have something new or substantive to say.

You've been doing a good job.

One more thing: I said in class that Sula would come into the next section. I misremembered. Sula the character enters the story on page 49.

Sula 17-29

Find what for you is the most interesting piece of imagery and say what the imagery might say about setting, character, or theme. If someone takes your image, use another image, unless you have something substantively new to say. Iamgery: a p lace where the author makes the reader use his powers of sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch.

Sula 7-16

Find an image and say what it says about either the setting, the character the image is connected to, or about Morrison's style. Try to be specific. If someone else has taken your image, write about a different image unless you have something substatively new about the image. Remember that an image is a word or phrase that evokes the reader's sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch.