Oppression, Liberation, and Identity in Sula: The Boundaries of Love

 Brennan Holyfield

Dr. Harris

ENGL 2017

30 April 2025

Oppression, Liberation, and Identity in Sula: The Boundaries of Love

In Toni Morrison’s Sula, love, friendship, identity, and a wealth of other themes such as gender, race, and social expectations are explored. Throughout Nel and Sula’s complex friendship, Morrison dives into the ways that these themes shape the characters’ lives, and more importantly, their interactions with the world and each other. One can obtain from Sula that Toni Morrison is critiquing societal norms, and the restrictive roles placed on African American women, while also championing moments of personal freedom and rebellion. This essay explores the oppressive societal norms, the possessiveness in Sula and Nel’s relationship, and the influence of gender expectations in society, specifically in the role of cultural wisdom and ‘othermothers.’

In Sula, Sula and Nel’s bond provides them with moments of freedom and rebellion, particularly in their shared closeness and their trust for each other. There are moments throughout the book where they are able to escape the norms of society that African American women have been tied down to (particularly that Black women being the property of the community, among other things). Their friendship and love for each other serves as a refuge from the traditional world, where gender roles and societal norms weigh heavily on them. While they are able to find solace in each other’s company, their lives are also complicated by their identities and roles within society. To zoom out, this was during the time of the Jim Crow laws, where systematic oppression and white supremacy ran rampant. The laws of Jim Crow would have significantly influenced how they were able to connect to one another. African American families and individuals were affected by these laws, and they were designed to propagate a structure where African Americans could not rely on white people, and African Americans were often viewed as second class. A great example of this would be White and Black bathrooms. While the Jim Crow laws affected people on a relational level, Jim Crow Laws were also a “a formal system of racial segregation that dominated the American South starting in the 1890s and affected nearly every aspect of daily life” (“Jim Crow Laws”) This environment, defined by white supremacy and segregation, shaped the way (through oppression) that Nel and Sula interacted in the world. Although their bond offers some reprieve, in that they can tell each other anything, the expectations of the two by society often overshadow their friendship.

While Nel and Sula’s love provides them with moments of emotional release, it is hard to deny that it eventually becomes a source of oppression. These moments are apparent especially when their bond takes on controlling or possessive qualities that are shaped by societal and social expectations. The tension between their individual desires cannot help but attach themselves to societal forces surrounding them—it is just nature. D.H. Lawrence, the writer of Women in Love, critiques how love lives in a world where emotional connections are often stifled by power dynamics and societal expectations (Lawrence 1920). This idea undoubtedly applies to Nel and Sula’s relationship, where the emotional connection between the two is constantly affected by limitations placed on them by society, and even their own community. Morrison talks briefly on the possessiveness when she writes, “Sula. She was mine. I was hers. We were each other’s” (Morrison). While their bond is unique in its intimacy, it becomes possessive. This possessiveness, while rooted in affection, ends up suppressing their autonomy as humans and distorts Nel and Sula’s sense of self. This is the epitome of how societal norms (whether it be white supremacy or the matriarchy) demand conformity even in relationships, where conformity is opposite of what people should be trying to pursue.

In Sula, gender roles and societal pressures are prominent and play a significant role in shaping experiences in both Nel and Sula. With African American women living in a radically divided society, they are faced with expectations that are not placed upon any other racial group. The expectations are primarily set by the older women in the community and are ingrained into African American women from the time they are born. Patricia Hill Collins discusses the concepts of “community mothers” and “othermothers,” (Collins 2000). Eva, Sula’s grandmother, embodies the role of an othermother and matriarchal figure whose lessons and attempts to teach these lessons to Sula. It is indicative as to how deeply gender dynamics are entrenched in society. Henry Louis Gates elaborates with his term “ancient mariner,” where older figures in the community like Eva, serve “as repositories of cultural knowledge and wisdom” (Gates 1988). The power of the cultural knowledge and wisdom place burdens on women like Eva, Nel, and Sula. They all handle the pressure differently—with Nel internalizing the pressure and Sula outright refusing the pressure. In the end, their differing responses point out the struggle for autonomy in a world where one’s identity is shaped by resistance.

In Sula, Toni Morrison weaves the complexities of identity, love, and societal pressures to reveal how norms can shape relationships and sometimes stifle personal freedom. Nel and Sula’s relationship, while rooted in affection, is the intersection where societal expectations of gender, community, and race clash. Through characters like Eva and the concept of ‘othermothers,’ Through Nel and Sula’s friendship, the reader is able to see where one person gets when they defy society and its expectations, and they see where someone else gets when they follow tradition. Morrison perfectly articulates what happens when one character is faced with two choices: conform to the roles of traditional African American women (Nel) or outright refuse tradition in almost every way imaginable (Sula). 

Works Cited

"Jim Crow Laws." American Experience, PBS,

www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedom-riders-jim-crow-laws/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2025.

Lawrence, D.H. Women in Love. Thomas Seltzer, 1920.

Morrison, Toni. Sula. Vintage International, 1973.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of 

Empowerment. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2000.

Gates, Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African American Literary Criticism. 

Oxford UP, 1988.