On the Acts of Love between Mother and Child in Toni Morrison’s Sula

By

Professor L.B. Johnson English 102.103 5 December 2011

Alicia D. Davis
Professor L.B. Johnson
English 102.103
5 December 2011 On the Act of Love between Mother and Child in Toni Morrison’s Sula
Thesis: Eva is conflicted with the choice of putting her son, Plum, out of his misery or watching him die slowly; sacrificing herself to save her daughter, Hannah, or watching her burn; Eva is conflicted with the love she feels for grand-daughter, Sula and the contempt she also holds for her.
I. Eva is left with the choice of putting her son, Plum out of his misery or watching him die slowly. A. Eva decides to remove stool from her son, Plum’s rectum to put him out of his misery. B. Eva decides to kill her son, Plum, to put him out of his misery.
II. Eva is conflicted with the choice of sacrificing herself to save her daughter or watching her burn. A. Hannah’s dress caught fire and her daughter Sula watches. B. Eva jumps from a window to try and smother the fire with her own body.
III. Eva is conflicted with the love she feels for Sula and the contempt she also holds for her.
A. Eva criticizes Sula for remaining unmarried.
B. Eva believes that Sula watched her mother, Hannah burn with interest.
Alicia D. Davis
Professor L.B. Johnson
English 102.103
5 December 2011 On the Acts of Love between Mother and Child in Toni Morrison’s Sula It is often stated that a woman will not know what it means to truly love unconditionally until she has given birth to a child. That statement is known to be true because it is believed that the love between a mother and child is the most power bond ever created. This type of love is the single most power form of love known to human kind. It is my opinion, that there is nothing that can break the love a mother shares with her child. While yes, many things in life can strain that love and even weaken that love, it is my belief that nothing can break that love completely. Throughout the novel Sula by Toni Morrison the fact that the love between mother and child is unbreakable is ever apparent in every chapter of the novel. The very beginning of the novel begins with a mother, Eva Peace, sacrificing her needs for the well-being of her children. This awesome novel is a true depiction of what motherhood is and what trials and tribulations a mother faces in order to maintain care for her child. The art of sacrifice is what solidifies a mother as a mother; it shows that a love of a mother is an unbreakable bond. Throughout the novel, Eva makes great sacrifices for her children both physically and emotionally. Eva is conflicted with the choice of putting her son, Plum, out of his misery or watching him die slowly; sacrificing herself to save her daughter, Hannah, or watching her burn; Eva is also conflicted with the love she feels for grand-daughter, Sula and the contempt she also holds for her. The first act of love between Eva and her child was early on in the novel. Eva showed the act of love to her youngest child, and only son, Ralph “Plum” Peace. Plum at the time was just a baby and had stopped having bowl movements. Eva had tried everything from massaging her baby’s belly to trying to force caster oil down his throat, but Plum cried and fought so much that she was only able to get him to drink very little. For days, Eva listened to the agony and pain her child felt knowing that if she did not find a way to relieve her son of his misery, and soon, that he would die. “She managed to soothe him, but when he took up the cry again late that night, she resolved to end his misery once and for all” (Morrison 86. All other references to Toni Morrison’s Sula will be indicated by page reference to this text). Eva took baby Plum outside “and shoved the last bit of food she had in the world (besides three beets) up his ass (86). This was a true act of love between mother and child. For Eva displayed sacrifice and the overwhelming need to save her son. Even though it meant she would have to go with out eating, and work harder to find another way to feed her other children the next day, having used what last bit of food she had to free her son of his misery and allowing him to finally rest peacefully. Later in the novel, Eva takes on the attitude that she must end Plums misery for the last time when he returns home from World War I, ravaged by his experiences in the war and with an addiction to heroin. Eva raised her son to be a man; to live as a man lives and because of the effects the war had on Plum he was not able to do so. Plum lied in his room all day intoxicated from heroin. Soiling his own pants and acting childlike, as if he would never be able to live on his own as a man should. Eva believed that Plum would forever live in the misery of the memories of war and would forever be a victim. A grown man that would never be able to live as men lived, she believed that Plum would always be a “growed-up man” (165) that would depend on her. She said that she had done so much to keep him alive early in his life and to bring him up as a man, that she could not allow him to die as a child, “being helpless and thinking baby thoughts and dreaming baby dreams and messing up his pants again and smiling all the time” (165). Eva believed that the lifestyle that Plum was living was less than her son deserved. She believed that her son deserved to die with dignity as a man. Eva’s choice to set her son on fire killing him shows that her love for him was complex yet still selfless. Eva was a mother who could not watch her son fall further and further into a life of drug addiction. Therefore, she killed her son to put him out of his misery; thereby losing him, her son who she loved so dearly and the best of all her children. I killing him she made the choice to live in pain knowing that she had killed her son and that he was gone forever so that he could he forever in peace and so that he could die like a man with honor. In both acts of love between Eva and Plum, Eva was following her instincts. Eva felt a need to save her son, the instinct is the “driving force that motivates [a] person to behave in a way to satisfy his or her need” (Schultz 54). Eva needed to save her son and her love and instincts as mother saw fit to fulfill that need by any means necessary. While setting Plum on fire and killing him was a hard decision for Eva to make, watching her daughter Hannah burn may have been the hardest thing Eva has ever had to do. Although Eva made the choice to set her son, Plum, on fire, ironically she tried to save her daughter, Hannah, from burning to death. There Eva sat in the window, combing her hair “and it was then she saw Hannah burning. The flames from the yard fire were licking the blue cotton dress, making her dance” (173). After Eva noticed that Hannah’s dress caught fire while burning trash in the yard “[she] knew there was time for nothing in this world other than the time it took to get there and cover her daughters body with her own” (173). At that time, Eva made the decision to jump out the window hoping to land on her daughter and smoother the fire blazing up Hannah’s dress with her own body. However, Eva missed and Hannah continued to burn until a neighbor through a tub of water on her. Even though, Eva did not make it to Hannah in time to save her life, her act of love between a mother and child is evident. Eva was willing to risk her life by jumping out of a window to save the life of her first-born child, her daughter Hannah. By Eva making the choice to jump out of a window in a last effort to try to save her child from burning, it was not only a show of how hard it was to watch her daughter burn; it also demonstrates the selflessness and unconditional feats a mother will reach for in a effort to protect her child from all harm. Unfortunately, in this instance a mothers love and efforts were not enough and ‘Hannah died on the way to the hospital. Or so they said” (176). On one hand, Eva’s effort of jumping out of the window may have been in vain but Eva may have still put her daughter out of her misery. The novel leaves us wondering if Eva did in fact take matters into her own hands by killing Hannah on the way to the hospital in an effort to relieve her daughter of her misery. Possibly, again, sacrificing and losing her daughter, her first born, in an effort to protect her from pain. A pain that she believes Sula, Eva’s granddaughter had the power to prevent by helping Hannah, who was Sula’s mother, when Hannah’s dress first caught fire. Eva believes Sula had watched Hannah burn not because she was paralyzed, but because she was interested” (178). Eva blames Sula for the death of Hannah. However, does this mean that Eva is unable to continue to love Sula? While Eva blames Sula for the death of Hannah, she also blames her for her inability to bring order in her home filled with chaos. Sula leaves home when she becomes an adult, feeling out of place and feeling as though she needed to leave. Sula needed to find a place free of the restraints a conventional life would have placed upon her. Ten years later Sula returns home to her grandmother, Eva. Moreover, Eva expresses her concern for Sula and the life she has chosen to live. She ask Sula “when [she] gone to get married” (201)? Eva also tells her that “[she] need to have some babies. It will settler [her]”(201). My question is this. Does Eva genuinely care about Sula’s well-being or were her words truly an act of sarcasm? I believe that the bond between a mother and child is unbreakable; however, Sula is Eva’s grandchild. The same act of love between mother and child may not apply to Sula because Eva did not birth Sula. Or perhaps because Sula watched Hannah burn the love she has for Sula has been seriously strained. In any event, Eva had strong feelings toward Sula. Feelings I believe you cannot have for someone unless you love them. Overall, the novel Toni Morrison’s Sula displayed several acts of love between mother and child. Not just between Eva and her children but among other characters in the novel as well. The love between a mother and child is very complex it is not something that can be defined with right or wrong. Each circumstance dealing with love requires a unique approach. Perhaps Eva’s action in killing Plum was a selfish act. Perhaps she killed Plum because she believed that because she was his mother she had the right to kill him because she believed she knew what was best for him. It is possible to assume that Eva took matters into her own hands because she believed that death was better than a life of drug addiction. Also, perhaps Hannah’s burning and Eva’s inability to save her was karma for Eva’s intentional burning of Plum. It is also safe to suggest that Eva blamed Sula for Hannah’s death because it is easier to blame someone rather than taking responsibility for negative actions and it is apparent that Eva was building a defense mechanism “to defend [herself] against the anxiety provoked by conflicts” (Schultz 61). It is also apparent that Eva loved her children very much; however, her actions in displaying that love is double sided. It was both selfless and selfish of Eva to make some of the decisions she made throughout the novel.

Works Cited
Morrison, Toni. Sula. New York: Knopf, 1973. Print.
Schultz, Duane, and Sydney Schultz. Theories of Personality. 9th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,2008.Print.