Throughout the book, Sula is judged to be bad by the society that surrounds her, while Nel is thought to be the picture of goodness. Even though the whole town of Medallion thinks Sula is the devil, she brings good to the town. Each person in the Bottom's quality of life improves, because they all ally themselves against her. She brings about change in the town that no one thought possible: she makes mothers love their children again, she makes husbands not take their wives for granted (because they will be faithful), and people begin to fix up their homes and the neighborhood. After Sula died the force of evil that inspired good everywhere died as well. "Now that Sula was dead and done with, they returned to a steeping resentment of the burden of old people. Wives no longer coddled their husbands; there seemed no further need to." After Sula's death mothers began to neglect their children, husbands were again unfaithful, and the community began to fall into …show more content…
The story takes place in the town of Medallion. The blacks all live at the top of the city, which is call the Bottom. Sula's last name is Peace, and yet everyone seems to think that all Sula brings is trouble. In reality Sula really did bring peace with her when she returned, and took it with her when she died. Eva, always trying to be a good mother, burned her youngest child, Plum, to death in order to save him, but was unable to save her oldest child, Hannah, from burning to death. On Suicide day, a day made to shed people's fears of death and make them realize that it is unpredictable, many people of the Bottom die in a presentation following the annual parade. Sula and Nel are two halves of a whole. The conforming Nel searches for a sense of order in her life when she marries Jude at a young age, which in the end seems to fail in giving her a happy life. Sula, on the other hand, opposes the conventions of society and ends her life rather