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

The Character of Sula as a Rose   Authors developed the canon in order to check a standard of literature that most sight needed to cook read or to have been familiar with. The works included in the canon utilize words much(prenominal) as beautiful, lovely, fair, and innocent to render women. The canonical works also use upd conventional symbols to compare the women to flowers such as the pink wine and the lily. Thomas Campion depicts the typical description of women in his poem, on that point 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 supernal paradise is that place,/ Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow (1044-5). The roses and lilies are used to portray beautiful, frail women who are admired by all and lay high on a pedestal for all to adore. Going against the canon, Toni Morrison comfort uses flowers to describe the women in her novel Sula. The women Morrison describes are not fair, pure, or innocent. Sula, the primary(prenominal) character compared to a rose, is not admired by all in society. Society looks down upon her because of her promiscuity and her carefree attitude. In Sula, Morrison depicts Sula as having a birthmark in the shape of a stemmed rose over one eye. Sulas birthmark spread from the middle of the lid toward the eyebrow, do something like a stemmed-rose... that gave her other wise plain face a broken excitement (52). At first, when Sula is young and inexperienced, the mark is the uniform shade as her gold-flecked eyes (53). The light shade of the mark represents the beat before Sula goes to college and experiences men and her sexuality. When Sula returns from the outside world to the Bottom, Sulas crush friend Nel notices that the mark was dark... ...and does not need the approval of the Bottom. Toni Morrison clearly depicts an opposing consume of the traditional symbolization of the rose. Although Sula is not frail and beautiful, she is still bushel on a pedestal. Instead of people admiring her, they fear her and the life she leads. The use her as an excuse to lead better lives. However, when she dies, the Bottom falls apart. The people no longer have a common bond of shame towards Sula. Reality befalls the community with Sulas death. At first, the Bottom seems content with Sulas death, however, people of the Bottom returned to a steeping saddle sore of the burdens of old people. Wives uncoddled their husbands there seemed no further need to reinforce their chest of drawers (153-4). The town no longer has a rose to blame their mishaps. Instead, they essential face up to their reality and their misfortune.