Coming to Our Own Conclusions

Sula By Toni Morrison is a novel primarily driven by character actions and motivations. The book is narrated in the third person, or an omniscient point of view, allowing Morrison to give us further insight into the characters and their motivations. While doing this, Morrison's narrator helps the audience understand the characters better and also not be so quick to judge their actions, because the narrator doesn't seem to judge them. The narration is very truthful, and is careful not to place any sort of judgement or blame, forcing the audience to observe the complexity of the situations and make judgments for themselves. 

The use of a third person narrator allows us as the audience to get to know all the characters equally well. This adds depth to the characters as well as the story, because it gives us a better understanding of why people did what they did and how their actions affected others. When Sula sleeps with Nel's husband, Jude, we see Sula and Nel's reactions separately, giving us a better understanding of what happened and why each character did what they did. Sula believes that since they are best friends and sex isn't really a big deal to her, that it should be alright for her to sleep with Jude. We get insight into Sula's character by seeing her inner thoughts about how she believes she and Nel share everything. Nel doesn't think that way, she was raised to believe that sex should be confined to marriage. Nel also doesn't seem to believe that she and Sula share everything. Nel sees the line where she ends and Sula starts, whereas Sula sees them each as a sort of continuation of the other.

The omniscient narrator also plays a key role in the scene of Plum's death. We see what is going on through several perspectives. The narrator gives us very basic detail, describing Eva's visit to her son and finding him in a drug induced haze. Then we are taken into Eva's thoughts and memories of her son as a child and shown her pain as she sees her son falling victim to addiction. After that, we learn Plum's thoughts and feelings as the kerosene is being poured over him. He finds it comforting, as if she is saving him. Plum thinks of the kerosene as "some kind of baptism, some kind of blessing" (47). Seeing Eva's guilt and Plum's comfort gives the audience a different perspective of something that would ordinarily be considered wrong. Eva clearly loves Plum, and the point where we hear his thoughts serves to turn his murder into an act of love. He is not afraid at all, in fact, he is in a state of "snug delight" (47). If not for his perspective, the audience would most definitely have come to the conclusion that Eva did something evil. However, the style of narration causes the reader to see ambiguity and complexity, ultimately forcing the audience to come to their own conclusions.

Third person narration in Sula plays a key role in creating sympathetic characters and allowing the audience to judge right and wrong for themselves.  An omniscient narrator allows the audience to know the thoughts and ideas of characters in order to better understand their motivations as well as the complexity of the situations they find themselves in. These characters are faced with incredibly difficult situations and are forced to find ways to deal with them, sometimes in ways that may seem morally wrong. But through the style of narration, Morrison forces the audience to look at the situations from all perspectives and ultimately decide whether the way characters acted was right or wrong.