A major and significant theme in Toni Morrison’s novel “Sula” is friendship, specifically female friendship. The novel explores the theme of friendship between two women, Sula and Nel, from childhood to maturity. Their relationship reveals that friendship consists of betrayal and forgiveness. Friendships are formed out of various circumstances however, when a friendship is made out of secret, it has a strong possibility to manifest in destructive ways. Sula examines the forging of such a friendship and its over take on individuals and the community. Sula and Nel connect out of shared experiences, they are both isolated and only children in their families and their friendship is a proxy for the intimacy they have been denied by both their community…show more content… However, as flawed as she appears to be, Sula never falls into the trap of conventionality to keep up false appearances or in order to be accepted by the sexist community. As the author notes of her “She was completely free of ambition, with no affection for money, property or things, no greed, no desire to command attention or compliments; no ego”. Faced with a racist world, Sula protects herself by creating a life, which is experimental and rich. In addition, Sula refuses to accept a woman’s conventional lot of child raising, marriage, pain and labor. The women of her community ridiculed Sula because she is a living example of their own terrible lives of submission. Though her community had branded Sula as evil, acting as if her return back from college was the worst thing that could have happened to them, it is without a doubt one of the best things that could have happened. Before Sula’s return to the community, it seemed a norm for the men in the Bottom to cheat on their wives, but Sula’s return prompted the women to cherish their men more. Not to state that every woman who has been cheated on is to blame for the infidelity of her husband, but a man who feels appreciated and cherished by his wife is less likely to go somewhere else to look for these
