The
narrator in Morrison’s novel, Sula, fluctuates between characters much
like William Faulkner’s in As I Lay Dying.
Both utilize the points of view from their characters to give the
recollection of events validity; however, the two differentiate in that Faulkner
specifically informs the reader as to who narrates the story at a specific point
in time. Nel and Sula, the two
protagonists, share the majority of the narrative responsibility as they recount
such confrontations such as the encounter between the two and a group of local
boys, in which Sula slices her finger in an act of self-defense.
Morrison presents the story through a third
person-omniscient view in flashback form. As
seen with the train ride at the beginning of the novel, Hannah not only recounts
the thoughts in her own mind, she also explains the reactions of the soldiers on
the train and the conductor. Without
these details, the story lines become extremely vague and fail to illustrate to
relationship between blacks and whites in the society.
Developing a panoramic view of the events augments the credibility of the
story through the understanding that several actions congeal into a reaction.
By not naming the narrator, Morrison takes bias away from a certain
character, and the reader loses the ability to discard information based on the
source.
