Toni Morrisons Sula - Character of Sula as a Rose Essay -- Sula Essay

The Character of genus Sula as a rise   Authors developed the canon in order to set a warning of literature that most people needed to have read or to have been familiar with. The full treatment included in the canon utilise words such as beautiful, lovely, fair, and innocent to describe women. The canonical works also used conventional symbols to compare the women to flowers such as the rise and the lily. Thomas Campion depicts the typical description of women in his poem, There is a Garden in Her Face. He describes the women by stating, There is a garden in her face/ Where roses and white lilies grow,/ A heavenly paradise is that place,/ Wherein whole pleasant fruits do flow (1044-5). The roses and lilies are used to portray beautiful, flimsy women who are admired by all and placed high on a pedestal for all to adore. Going against the canon, Toni Morrison still uses flowers to describe the women in her novel Sula. The women Morrison describes are not fair, pure, or inno cent. Sula, the main character compared to a rose, is not admired by all in society. Society looks bulge upon her because of her promiscuity and her carefree attitude. In Sula, Morrison depicts Sula as having a nevus in the shape of a stemmed rose over integrity eye. Sulas birthmark spread from the middle of the lid toward the eyebrow, shaped something like a stemmed-rose... that gave her other wise plain face a broken upheaval (52). At first, when Sula is young and inexperienced, the mark is the same shade as her gold-flecked eyes (53). The light shade of the mark represents the time before Sula goes to college and experiences men and her sexuality. When Sula returns from the outside world to the Bottom, Sulas best friend Nel notices that the mark was dark... ...and does not need the approval of the Bottom. Toni Morrison clearly depicts an opposing view of the traditional symbolism of the rose. Although Sula is not frail and beautiful, she is still set on a pedestal. Instead of people admiring her, they fear her and the life she leads. The use her as an vindicate to lead better lives. However, when she dies, the Bottom falls apart. The people no drawn-out have a common bond of hatred towards Sula. Reality befalls the community of interests with Sulas death. At first, the Bottom seems content with Sulas death, however, people of the Bottom returned to a steeping resentment of the burdens of old people. Wives uncoddled their husbands in that location seemed no further need to reinforce their vanity (153-4). The town no longer has a rose to blame their mishaps. Instead, they must face up to their reality and their misfortune.