Essay on Transcendence and Transgression in Toni...

The Black women writers like Alice Walker, Paule Marshall, Toni Cade Banbara and Toni Morrison have always propagated the black feminist consciousness through their works. By giving voice to the voiceless, these writers renounce all the negative stereotypical images of black women. Morrison is an important writer among the league who has always startled her readers with her creative powers by giving her work such a finesse that one feels engulfed in her storyline. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993, her novels are replete with African American cultural aura : myths, symbols, festivals and the name that she assigns to her characters. Sula (1973) is the second novel of Toni Morrison which is set in her Medallion, Ohio. The novel involved a lot†¦show more content†¦However, Nel does fall into such relationship which ultimately leads to her alienation as a result of her submission. Sula on the other hand, refuses to marry as she believes marriage is nothing but the extermination o f one’s identity. After returning to Medalliion, Eva-her grandmother, asks her about her marriage, Sula replies, â€Å"I don’t want to make somebodyelse. I want to make myself.† She abjures marriage, children and all such attachments that pose limitation to the role of black women. She enters the church scantily dressed and moreover, she sends her grandmother to the old folks home thus subverting the doctrines of the role of daughters and wives. Notwithstanding her transgression, the community considers her as a pariah and outlaw. What is considered as a bold departure by black males Sula’s interracial sex though when it comes to white women, they would not give it a second thought. The whole people unite in regarding Sula as an evil as she transgresses their impositions, she negates all the limitations and her only concern is her belief in her own ‘Self’. She doesn’t need anybody’s shoulder for herself and acts according to her own will. She is an embodiment of the resilience and willpower among women which paves the way for their survival amidst the patriarchal norms. Sula’s faith in herself is delineated in the novel through her death scene. Her conversation with Nel prior to her death