Fear and its Effects in Sula essays

Fear and its Effects in Sula essays In Toni Morrisons novel, Sula (1973), the reader follows the life of Sula Peace through her childhood in the 1920s, until her death in 1941. Sulas interactions with the surrounding characters play a profound role in the constant development of their emotions. It seems that Sulas controversial relationships, especially between her grandmother Eva, her best-friend Nel, and Jude, accentuate feelings of fear, even in herself. In turn, the characters are forced to either cope with their newfound fear or find a way to control it. Throughout the story, however, the reader is expected put aside conventional expectations to enter a somewhat fictional world; a world in which evil may be good, or where murder becomes an act of love. The novel addresses the confusing mysteries of human emotions and relationships, ultimately concluding that social conventions are inadequate in explaining the characters affairs. Sulas impact on other characters is the single most important factor in the developmen t of their emotions, primarily their fears. At the start of the novel we are introduced to Shadrack, a character who lives in constant fear of unexpected death. Even tough he is not mentioned much after the first chapters, his struggle is the start of the symbolism of fear in Morrisons novel. In 1917, 20-year-old Shadrack suffers a traumatic experience in World War I. The shell shock experienced instills a fear that he might die unexpectedly. The horrors of the war annihilated the boundaries that once defined his perception of reality, as can be seen in his weird sense that his, hands began growing out of control. (9) The world now seems to him a thing of chaos, and he is unable to deal with the excess of choices and paths it leaves open to him. In response to his fears, Shadrack develops an intense need to order his own existence. He began a struggle that was to last for twelve days, a struggle...