Women's Sexual Freedom in Morrison's Sula

Abstract

This research is an endeavour to explore the issue of Women's Sexual Freedom in Sula, novel written by Toni Morrison. So the thesis has really created the tension between the private and the public life: evil and good nature in human being. The research centers on Sula's radical thought and behaviour, tended to search for the complete freedom in the sexual matter. Sula Peace and Nel Wright are major characters of the novel. They are born in the same community Bottom, but grown up in different family backgrounds. Sula Peace struggles against the norms of the community, imposed on black women with the matters of sex. They have to be confined themselves within the social boundary. Sula really violates such systems. She has become an outcast in her community. She is nominated as a pariah or a bitch. So her moral dignity is lost. Nel Wright is another major black female character. She is very strict in morality. She does not violate the systems of her community. She behaves like other women. She wants to be what people of Bottom think. At the beginning of the novel, she severely negates the behaviour, followed by her bosom friend Sula. She really requests Sula to behave according to the norms and values of the black patriarchal community. The great clash occurs in their friendship because Sula beds with Nel’s husband Jude. At the end of the novel, Nel stands in support of Sula’s ideology. She highly appreciates Sula while lying at the hospital bed. So we can say that Sula is actually searching for complete freedom in sex. She wants to break down the patriarchal norms and values, imposed on black women.