HAYWIRE Issue 2 Fall 2013
seemingly short and joyous voyage
to find her father.
Even though she has been
treated unfairly by her people, when
she is on Baboon Island she is
reluctant to give away her only
remaining tie to the village. “It had
been made with the many, many
hands of the village, and when it
was gone she would have no more
food that had been touched by her
people” (155).
Her own family had wanted to
marry her off to the vile Zororo, just
to get rid of the Ngozi. Still they
were family and she loved them all
the same. They cared for her most of
the time and tended to her when she
was sick. They talked to her and
accepted her and unlike the Baboons
didn’t exclude her completely like
they had with Rumpy.
Nhamo remembers pounding
mealies, and how Masvita never had
to do any of the hard work. At the
end of the book she realizes why.
“‘Ambuya didn’t want me to be like
Masvita’ ” (288). Nhamo had
always wanted everything that
Masvita had: a father and mother, a
loving family, and a beautiful body.
Ambuya is telling her that she
should be herself, and that she is
better that Masvita.
Nhamo has taken many risks to
be able to model her own future,
instead of just sitting there and
waiting for life to take its toll. The
protagonist’s parlous voyage
through Africa leaves her with a
new understanding of the many
aspects of life modern, and old.
Nhamo’s struggle does not only
happen in the African jungle. Her
journey took a whole year, but it
happens to us every day. We figure
out our place in society, where we
stand in comparison to others. We
find out who we really are, and who
will stick with us when we are in
dire need of company.
Fragmented Relationships
On Toni Morrison’s Sula
By Nick Jannes, 11th grade
The novel Sula, written by
Toni Morrison in 1973, lays down
a chronologically fragmented tale
focusing on the interactions of
several people. The main
character, Sula, from which the
novel gets its name, struggles
with controlling her actions and
finds herself often as a scapegoat
for her town, Medallion’s,
problems.
Nevertheless, she quickly
develops a powerful friendship
with a girl named Nel, through
which she can cope with her
image and race. Toni Morrison
tries to illustrate Nel and Sula’s
intricate relationship through the
use of strong metaphoric language
and complex symbols.
Both Nel and Sula are
African-American women living
in a small, rural town by the name
of Medallion, where racial
prejudice limits their
opportunities and befuddles their
image. Sula begins several
intimate relationships with men,
even white men, that cause the
town to ostracize her. Eventually,
she catalyzes an affair with Jude,
Nel’s husband.
Needless to say, Nel was
gobsmacked by her
“Morrison utilizes
such metaphoric
language to show a
change in the
psyche of Nel, but
also creating a
connection to
Sula’s promiscuous
behavior.”
best friend’s betrayal. Nel was
accepting of all of Sula’s
mischievous doings for, “Nel was
the one person who had wanted
nothing from her, who had
accepted all of her” (119). She
was attracted to Sula’s self-
dependency and self admiration.
Sula’s betrayal caused a
metamorphosis in Nel, as she
soon though of herself as, “one of
the spiders whose only thought
was the next rung of the web, who
dangled in dark, dry places
suspended by their own
spittle” (120).
Morrison utilizes such
metaphoric language to show a
change in the psyche of Nel, but
also creating a connection to
Sula’s promiscuous behavior.
Each rung of the web symbolizes
another man for Sula, and being
suspended by one’s spittle as one
standing alone. In such a concise
sentence, Morrison takes
advantage of metaphors to portray
Sula and Nel’s shattered
friendship.
The passage also exhumes
many aspects of Nel and Sula’s
fractured friendship through
symbolic language. Morrison
portrays Sula’s seductive behavior
12