Burning          

            Throughout Morrison’s work Sula, we find many images of burning as a representation of maternal care. Eva burns her son, Plum, for his benefit. He lived in misery, drinking and serving no purpose but to occupy space. With the act of burning, Eva prevents Plum from fully relying on her and “crawling into her womb.”  Eva could not allow him to continue feeding off of her, and through many efforts in an attempt to server the dependence, she relieved them both of their heavy burdens. Opposite her relationship with Plum, Eva’s relationship with her daughter Hannah presents an attempt in pulling her back closer. When Hannah accidentally catches on fire, Eva tries to extinguish the engulfing flames because she does not want Hannah to leave her womb.  She knows Hannah contains the tools needed in order for survival and does not need Eva’s help. Hannah exists out of “the womb” and Eva feels concern without a hold on her. Eva does not wish for Hannah to die, and without dependence, it remains beyond her control. 

Robins

            The robins followed Sula into town the day she arrived back in the Bottom.  Just like Sula, the birds were not welcomed into the town’s friendly arms.  Instead, they were hated, and people wished that Sula and her feathered friends would go back where they came from.  The robins create a magnificent imagery, because they show parallelism with Sula.  Everything that makes Sula who she is, also makes the robins such nuisances.  “Accompanied by a plague of robins, Sula came back to Medallion.  Sula and the robins brought with them annoyance, and remembrances of years passed that were not always filled with happiness.  The return of both of these pests reminded the people how glad they were the last time they left.  The little yam-breasted shuddering birds were everywhere, exciting very small children away from their usual welcome into a vicious stoning” (Morrison 89).  Like Sula, the birds, in there massive numbers, were so spectacular and interesting, that the children followed them around town, much like the men followed Sula.  These birds came into town just as an appealing and attractive woman “stepped off the Cincinnati Flyer.”  Nel was the only person who noticed this not so subtle coincidence with the return of the birds and Sula at the very same time.  Sula was like the robins, in that she left heartache and sadness wherever she went.  The robins also made it “hard to hang up clothes, pull weeds or just sit on the front porch, [because they] were flying and dying all [over].”  No one knew why the birds were dying, but no one cared just as long as Sula and them left as quickly as they came.  However, Sula stayed and left her share of metaphorical bile just like the robins.  Sula, for example, made Nel become a single parent.  Sula slept with Jude, Nel’s husband, and so he left.  The robins were also an equally forceful entity to be reckoned with.  They hurt others such as Shadrack.  Once, a bird flew into Shadrack’s house.  The bird “stayed, looking for an exit for the better part of an hour.  When the bird found the window and flew away, Shadrack was grieved and actually waited and watched for its return.”  During those days, his usually immaculately clean house became a disheveled mess.  Just like what happened with Sula, he lost his power over the bird.  When he realized that he could not control the bird, he grew tired of doing anything.  In the same way, when Sula came back to town, and Shadrack realized that he did not have the same power that he used to have over her, he became uncaring towards everything that used to matter to him.  When the birds came, turmoil hit the Bottom, and Sula came back.   

Legs

            Legs in this book represent hot fiery passion, and they also represent the passage way to this passion.  This passion lead to control by using sexual encounters as a weapon.  The legs were just an incendiary.  For Eva, who only had one leg, that “one glamorous leg was always in view as well as the long fall of space below her left thigh.”  Even though Eva only had one leg, she still let all the men know that her “pathway to heaven” was still open and ready.  Eva had many gentleman callers, “old as she was, and with one leg.”  The fact that she only had one leg did not bother the gentleman callers.  They knew that she once had two of those slender legs that lead to the female genitalia, and that is all that mattered. 

Hannah’s legs however, added to her sex appeal.  When she had gentleman callers, she would put down her package that she was carrying, “simply because [the gentleman] wanted to see how her thighs looked when she bent down…” She used her legs as a sexual tool for luring men into her web of daily sexual encounters with random men.  Just like her mother, Sula emitted that sexual vibe, which men felt when she walked by. 

When Sula walked by men, they “opened and closed their thighs.”  Sula felt the stares of the “old men [looking] at [her] stalklike legs, and [dwelling] on the cords in the backs of [her knees]…” Sula liked the attention.  She knew with every glance, that the man was putty in her hands if she wanted him to be.  She personally felt that her legs were pathways to pure happiness.  In addition, with them she had power and control over a man who would otherwise dominate her.  She encouraged men to see her in that light.  Along the same lines, when Sula used her sexual power over Jude, Nel’s husband, her legs got her in trouble.  After sleeping with her best friends husband, “her thighs were truly empty and dead,” and now Nel was left “with no thighs either.”  In the end, the imagery of this sexual body part does cause the downfall of Sula.  Legs in this story, become the devil’s tool.      

  Phallic symbols

             Shadrack gives an intimate portrayal of the phallus with his role in the novel.  He physically walks around with his genitalia hanging out of his pants, declaring to the world his sexual prowess and is virility.  He undertakes this action because of his insecurities as a man, and he feels that he must prove himself to society and for respect.  In order to obtain his ‘manhood’ and respect, he yells at everybody in the neighborhood in an attempt to portray himself as a dominant male in the society.  He also places himself in a position of power with his fish market, acting as if he does his customers a favor by selling to them. 

He demonstrates his ‘potency’ with the beating he gives Sula when she enters his home after killing Chicken Little.  Attempting to reassure her to the fact that he will remain dominant for the rest of eternity, he simply says to her “always.”  This exhibition demonstrates the mentality of Shadrack, he knows that he holds no true power over the older women so he pummels a little girl and cements the image of his domineering hand in her subconscious.  

Freud-http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/terms.html#Freud

The Bottoms

         Literally, the name “The Bottoms” represents the oxymoronic state of the African Americans in the novel.  The actual placement of the Bottoms looks over the rest of the town, where the land is rocky and unfit for farming.  The people in the bottoms form a community through the subjugation from the whites in the town.  They rebel against the suppression, however, they are crushed because they lack a structure of their own to rely upon. After “National Suicide Day,” everyone moves away from the bottom because their united efforts against the constraints of society only caused the death of their own people.  The people of the bottom only fit together when “the man” oppresses them into similar circumstances, and therefore no matter where they go they will always remain in “The Bottom.”