Sula alludes to many works of American literature. While blacks had more money and rights than they ever had before, they were still largely pushed to live in poorer, segregated communities, far from whites. By 1965-the year in which the novel ends-there were more and more prosperous black families, but at the same time, black people remained highly discriminated against in America. In the 30s and 40s, blacks gained some legal rights for themselves, largely as a result of starting their own businesses and making more money. Finally, Morrison’s novel alludes to the economic history of the black community in the United States.
Morrison alludes to African-Americans’ thankless service in World War I via the character of Shadrack-a young, strong black man who fights in Europe, and returns to his home a broken man. It was hoped that by serving in World War I, beginning in 1917, blacks could gain some political rights, but this largely turned out to be untrue: the American government of the period, headed by Woodrow Wilson, showed no interest in granting new legal and political protections for the black community, in spite of its loyal service to the U.S. In practice, blacks had almost no legal or political power, meaning that they could be manipulated and controlled by racist whites with impunity. African-Americans were freed from slavery following the Civil War, but their literal liberation didn’t free them from other forms of economic servitude and social oppression. As the novel begins, blacks in the United States live in a state of fear and poverty. In addition to being a story about the friendship and rivalry between Nel and Sula, Sula can be read as a story about the African-American experience in the first half of the 20th century. In 2019, at the age of 88, Morrison died of complications from pneumonia. Her final novel, God Help the Child, was published in 2015. Morrison taught at Rutgers, Howard, Princeton, and many other colleges and universities.
She then completed Sula(1973), for which she was nominated for the National Book Award Song of Solomon (1977), the novel that first brought her widespread acclaim and Beloved (1987), which contributed to her being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993. In 1970 she published her first novel, The Bluest Eye.
Following her divorce from her husband, Morrison worked as an editor in New York City, where she was instrumental in publishing the first works of the political activist Angela Davis. During this time she gave birth to two children, who she raised on her own. She was married to Harold Morrison, an architect, from 1958 to 1964. She attended Howard University from 1949 to 1953, and later earned a Masters Degree at Cornell. Toni Morrison was born in Ohio to a working-class family that had fled the South to escape racism and economic oppression.
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