Archetype
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Reader Response &much much more!
&
Reader Response &much much more!
The Temptress is an archetype that is prevalent in Sula by Toni Morrison and make it an interesting book to read. Secondly I would like to talk about the representation of Sula's birthmark on her face. For a reader response I related this book to many of the problems that I have had come across in my short lifetime. To include, when Nel was on the train with her mother and got cold stares from the army men, sometimes I feel out of place like I am the only one of my 'kind' whether if it was just because I was a woman or a Native American.
The first archetype that I would like to talk about is the Temptress. I believe that there were many temptresses in the book Sula, as there was alot of sex/love present. I believe that the Peace family, Eva, Hannah and Sula were temptresses. Even when Eva lost her leg men fancied her and she had a "regular flock of gentleman callers". (41) Although she never participated in the act of love, she was still an object that men wanted. Hannah was the biggest temptress of them all. She had men at what seems like every hour of the day. And did not set a good example for her daughter Sula who followed in her footsteps of becoming a temptress or a harsher word a prostitute.
When Sula was born she had a birth mark across her face in which some said represented a rose/stem. Sula’s birthmark over one eye is perceived differently by different characters. What shape people perceive the birthmark to be says more about them than about Sula. To Shadrack, whose livelihood is catching and selling river fish, Sula’s birthmark resembles a tadpole, a symbol of Shadrack’s earthy nature and his psychological metamorphosis throughout the novel. To Jude, it looks like a poisonous snake, which recalls the serpent in the biblical garden of Eden and symbolizes the carnal sin that the married Jude commits when he has a sexual affair—however brief—with Sula. To others, including the narrator, the birthmark is a stemmed rose, adding excitement to an otherwise plain face. This stemmed-rose imagery is a positive symbol of Sula’s persevering character. She remains true to herself, which Morrison, by linking Sula’s birthmark to the image of the traditionally beautiful rose, emphasizes as the most important virtue of a spiritually beautiful person.
For my reader response I related many of the decisions that Sula and Nel made to some of my own. When Sula let go of Chicken Little in the river, and ran for Shadrack's I thought that she was running for help but didn't. There have been times in my life where I had to weigh my options for a major decision that I had to make. I represented Eva to my grandmother, I feel as though Eva was an earthly mother who made rash decisions to keep her children alive. My grandmother had lost most of her husbands (three) to car crashes or illnesses. She was left alone to fend for herself and raise her six children. She tells it like it is and doesn't care if your feelings get hurt but can also have a soft side.
I also intertwined the story of the farmer tricking the blacks into moving onto the hill because it was the bottom of heaven to Native Americans and the Trail of Tears or colonization to the west. The blacks were tricked because of an old joke, whereas the Native Americans were promised many things through treaties. Which can be a lens of post colonialism.
The first archetype that I would like to talk about is the Temptress. I believe that there were many temptresses in the book Sula, as there was alot of sex/love present. I believe that the Peace family, Eva, Hannah and Sula were temptresses. Even when Eva lost her leg men fancied her and she had a "regular flock of gentleman callers". (41) Although she never participated in the act of love, she was still an object that men wanted. Hannah was the biggest temptress of them all. She had men at what seems like every hour of the day. And did not set a good example for her daughter Sula who followed in her footsteps of becoming a temptress or a harsher word a prostitute.
When Sula was born she had a birth mark across her face in which some said represented a rose/stem. Sula’s birthmark over one eye is perceived differently by different characters. What shape people perceive the birthmark to be says more about them than about Sula. To Shadrack, whose livelihood is catching and selling river fish, Sula’s birthmark resembles a tadpole, a symbol of Shadrack’s earthy nature and his psychological metamorphosis throughout the novel. To Jude, it looks like a poisonous snake, which recalls the serpent in the biblical garden of Eden and symbolizes the carnal sin that the married Jude commits when he has a sexual affair—however brief—with Sula. To others, including the narrator, the birthmark is a stemmed rose, adding excitement to an otherwise plain face. This stemmed-rose imagery is a positive symbol of Sula’s persevering character. She remains true to herself, which Morrison, by linking Sula’s birthmark to the image of the traditionally beautiful rose, emphasizes as the most important virtue of a spiritually beautiful person.
For my reader response I related many of the decisions that Sula and Nel made to some of my own. When Sula let go of Chicken Little in the river, and ran for Shadrack's I thought that she was running for help but didn't. There have been times in my life where I had to weigh my options for a major decision that I had to make. I represented Eva to my grandmother, I feel as though Eva was an earthly mother who made rash decisions to keep her children alive. My grandmother had lost most of her husbands (three) to car crashes or illnesses. She was left alone to fend for herself and raise her six children. She tells it like it is and doesn't care if your feelings get hurt but can also have a soft side.
I also intertwined the story of the farmer tricking the blacks into moving onto the hill because it was the bottom of heaven to Native Americans and the Trail of Tears or colonization to the west. The blacks were tricked because of an old joke, whereas the Native Americans were promised many things through treaties. Which can be a lens of post colonialism.
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