This essay will be a literary research essay about Sula. That means you will engage with what other scholars in the field have to say about your topic. must be: 5-7 pages (approximately 1250-1750 words), double-spaced, in 12-point font, with one-inch margins. Number your pages. Give your essay a specific and descriptive title that clearly reveals your focus. As with previous assignments, please put your thesis statement in boldface. It is okay if you exceed 1750 words or 7 pages but strive for brevity and clarity in your argument. must use MLA-style documentation, including a works cited list. must consult and engage with at least 2 reputable scholarly articles or books; at some points, you will need to fully summarize and explain the authors’ claims with which you are dealing. One of these essays will be Karen F. Stein’s piece “Toni Morrison’s Sula: A Black Woman’s Epic.” The book you are writing about (Sula) is your “primary source” and does not count as one of the two sources. And, I say this every time, on all my assignments: I expect to see a focused argumentative thesis with supporting points based on textual analysis. Use the text as support, meaning, you must build your argument through close reading and explanation of actual passages in the text. Fully develop your analysis. A quotation from the text will not illustrate your thesis on its own. You must teach the reader, through close reading and elaboration upon details in the passages, how it relates to your thesis. It is also better to elaborate in detail upon one example in each paragraph than to bring in too many undeveloped examples in a paragraph. Be sure to begin your body paragraphs with clearly written topic sentences that announce the main idea of the paragraph and how it connects to your ongoing argument. If you include your outline after the works cited page in your submission, you will receive extra points in your overall grade. You may consider one of the following questions. If you choose to go in an independent direction (Yes! Go for it!), please discuss it with me. Remember that an essay that fails to address a prompt does not earn a passing grade.
1. In what ways do Nel, Sula, or other female characters exemplify heroism? What principle does this hero illustrate in her life? Is it a necessary value in the Bottom?
2. How do male characters (or female characters) in Sula suffer from what Morrison describes (in her Foreword to the 2002 Vintage “blue cover” edition) as the “wasteful capitalist war . . . on black people”?
3. How does Morrison employ narrative point of view in Sula? How does the narration impact the meaning or significance of the content?
4. Pick one textual motif that appears throughout the novel at least 3 or more times (e.g., Sula’s birthmark, Nel’s embarrassment about her mother’s “custard” skin, Nel’s “gray ball,” Shadrack’s “National Suicide Day,” or any other recurring image/reference that you notice). Present an interpretation of the novel’s meaning that accounts for or considers the role of this motif.
the assignment must be focused on a clear argumentative thesis. I’ve included the stein essay, sula, as well as another source by Ashfaque Ahmad Shovon to include in the argument.
