Close Reading of the Two Holes Passage of Toni Morrisons Sula :: Sula Essays

A Close Reading of the Two Holes Passage of Sula Toni Morrisons novel Sula is rich with paradox and contradiction in terms from the name of a community on top of a hill called Bottom to a family full of discord named Peace. There are no blank distinctions in the novel, and this is most apparent in the meaning of the relationship amidst the two main characters, Sula and Nel. Although they are characterized differently, they also have many similarities. literary critics have interpreted the girls in several different ways as lesbians (Smith 8), as the two halves of a single person (Coleman 145), and as representations of the dichotomy between good and evil (Bergenholtz 4 of 9). The ambiguity of these two characters allows for infinite speculation, but regardless of how the reader interprets the relationship their bond is undeniable. The most striking example of their union occurs right before the accidental death of Chicken Little. In the passage preceding his death, Nel and Sula c onduct an almost ceremonial commitment to one other that is sealed permanently when the water darkened and closed quickly over the place where Chicken Little sank (Morrison 61) Together they worked until the two holes were one and the same. When the depression was the surface of a small dishpan, Nels twig broke. With a gesture of disgust she threw the pieces into the hole they had made. Sula threw hers in too. Nel saw a bottle cap and tossed it in as well. Each then looked around for more debris to throw into the hole paper, bits of glass, butts of cigarettes, until all the small defiling things they could find were collected there. Carefully they replaced the soil and cover the entire grave with uprooted grass. Neither one had spoken a word. (Morrison 58-59) The image of the girls working together to dig holes in the dirt begins with each girl slam her own hole, but symbolically the two separate holes become one, representing the merging of Sula and Nel into a deep and meaningfu l relationship. The imagery of a hole is employ to describe the whole of Sula and Nel, indicating the completeness of the two when they are together. When the girls concurrently throw their twigs into the hole it is as if they are throwing themselves into each others consciousness, making a permanent connection with one another. Each twig represents their independent selves being joined with the other when they are thrown together into the hole to be buried.