AP Literature and Compositions students are wrapping up their final year of high school and with it comes their final school assigned readings. Students read and analyzed “Sula,” by Toni Morrison, and participated in class discussions.
“Sula,” published in 1973, follows the stories of the people of The Bottom, a Black neighborhood on a hill in the fictional town called Medallion t in Ohio. The novel has been placed on banned books list in several states, according to the American Library Association, as it touches on sensitive topics such as sex, cultural and societal identity and betrayal. After reading the book, students had a lot to say about the novel and whether students should be reading it in school. “I think it’s important to read and I enjoyed reading it, but I can see how other people could feel like it’s not appropriate,” senior Abigail Brodsky said.
The characters face challenges that test the limits of friendships and loyalty, and the themes of the book explore oppression as well as the struggle of self identity outside a community. “I really liked the way she was able to write about very complicated dynamics while having overarching themes like the oppression of Black people at this time,” senior Anna Lizando said.
Morrison uses symbolism to portray a character’s experience, which can be seen in their inner dialogue. One symbol that students may have struggled to unpack was the gray ball that one character sees. “I feel like the gray orb maybe represented her feeling trapped and really just having no way out of this situation,” Lizando said
Students said that Morrison’s bluntness and her complicated way of portraying themes were difficult. “My first thought was that I have never read a book quite like it, and I think I annotated the whole book to help me get through it, sometimes just writing a sticky note saying I’m really confused,” Lizando said.
Students said they enjoyed reading the book and the discussions they had in class, though for some students the book was a harder school read. Controversial main topics left a lot of room for debate that not everybody was comfortable with. “I feel like it was very hard to talk about [Sula] sleeping with her best friend’s husband. That was quite difficult to talk about in class personally,” senior Madeline Hill said.
“Sula” is one of the most complex pieces of literature, according to AP Lit teacher Zachary Lowe. Lowe said he believes that Morrison is one of the most important writers for students to read. Lowe describes human life as messy and complex and thinks it is important for students to be familiar with this content before going to college and becoming an adult “We should be engaging in complex literature as human behavior is really complex. Literature can help us explore those complexities,” Lowe said.
