Professor Wesley

We haven't had the chance to really connect on the level that you and some of the other students. My experience in this class has been very interesting. We have some of the craziest class discussions and people in the class are comfortable enough to even curse in front of you. Although it may not seem true, I believe your class has helped me to pace myself when I have long papers. There has been a couple of times when I felt as if I couldn't make it through the program because all the work assigned had me going crazy. I appreciate your tough love and "no slack" mentality. In the beginning, I was thinking that college isn't much harder than high school, unfortunately I was wrong. You quickly shut that thought down! I see that you don't play no games.... none at all!!!! I didn't understand that until it was too late and I already had a bad grade in your class. I didn't feel like I was doing too bad on anything but the Sula quizzes. I will miss you though Professor Wesley, even though you did diss a song that I really liked.

Argumentative essay

We have a new essay that is coming up, and its an argumentative essay. We picked themes from the book Sula and were going to make a claim. Professor Wesley came into the class and said "I don't believe in God, we came from monkeys!" That was her claim, now she had to be able to back it up. She had to make us (the people who believe in God) agree with her. She also had to be ready for the questions that we were going to throw at her, the first one was "Why not?" In the argumentative essay you have to address all kind of people, ones that agree and disagree with you. Research is a really big part in the essay as well. You have to have research to help prove your point. The important thing to remember about an argumentative essay is that you are not arguing to win, you are simply arguing to get your point across or to change the mind of your reader. Its like you're sort of trying to persuade the reader to forget what they think about the topic and agree with you because you have proof to back up your opinion.

TeenageINFLUENCES

In todays world, our generation is said to be easily influence by the things around us. I cant say whether I agree or disagree with this assumption, because some people live a messed up life and that's the cause of their actions. Violent video games may be the cause of a few peoples killings but not majority of them. I believe the assumption would also include the thought of young adults doing drugs because they see celebrities doing it. I agree with this 100%!! Most people in our generation only do things because they see their favorite artist or friends doing it. Peer pressure is no joke nowadays. The most pure person could be apart of our generation and hang out with just one friend that smokes, more than likely they'll take a hit.

  If you ever want to hide something from one of todays teens, throw it into a book. Its a proven fact that we don't read nearly enough. We spend more time on the internet and using technology, than we do playing outside.

1965- Nel

Its been 25 years and Nel is taking the time to look back at all the things she's been through so far in her life. Medallion is going through a lot of big changes. Blacks are moving down where the whites usually live to build houses. When she and Jude split up she was left with the children, but now that they are grown and no longer living with her she feels like she has done nothing special with her life. She makes the decision to visit Sula's grandmother, Eva, at the nursing home. Eva is still somewhat of a crazy lady to me, but she's not stupid. She always knows what's going on. When she puts Nel on the spot and says that she knows that she killed Chicken Little. She pointed the blame on Sula, but it wasn't entirely her fault. I believe she went to the cemetery out of guilt. Eva opened her eyes and showed her the real Nel. Maybe she feels as if she hasn't done much with her life because she hasn't been living life as herself.

1941- Since you've been gone...

Sula is dead, and everyone is acting a fool. The people from the bottom just felt like since she was gone then they no longer had to care for their family. Since she died they believe no one was in danger of getting hurt, cheated on, or killed. I think this is ridiculous, these people should love and cherish their family with or without Sula around. Shadrack is really emotional about Sula's death. He felt as if she was his only friend. When she walked down the street he would tip his hat at her.... even when he didn't have on a hat. She dropped her belt is his house, he kept it and hung it up. That is really creepy to me, because he's a lot older than her. I think he may have had an actual crush on her, and that's why he's so broken up about her death. In our class discussion today we went back to 1940 and we were trying to decide if Nel was insecure and why. We established the fact that she is.

1940- "It didnt even hurt"

This is probably the saddest chapter in this book. Sula is sick with a fever. Her and Nel haven't talked in years yet she was willing to go visit her and make sure she's okay. That's not the only reason that she went though, she also visited her to get answers to her questions. She got exactly what she was looking for but not the way she wanted it. I'm glad that Sula didn't love Jude because it would be much more hurtful to know that your best friend is in love with your man. To be in love with someone you have to have gotten close to them over time. Nel made the decision to end everything with Sula when she asked Nel to get over it. Get over it? I would have been like "you want me to get over the fact that you ruined my happy home?!" I really hate the fact that that's the last talk they had before Sula died. No one ever wants to live with the feeling of being at fault. How did Sula die? If you ask me, I believe she died of an overdose of that pain medicine she was prescribed.

1939- Getting played

Everyone believes that Sula is the devil, a bitch, and a roach. Why? Well, because she just always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The robin plague just happened to take place when she arrived, teapot (kid from around the way) fell off of her front porch and his mother assumed that she pushed him, then there's the fact that she witnessed her mother burn to death. I would just say that she's bad luck, and never walk her way. She was going around being a hoe, sleeping with everybody's men, until she came across Ajax again. Do you remember the guy who called her "pig meat!"? Yeah well that's him. He brings her bottles and she gives him herself. They had sex in the pantry.... Like mother like daughter.  I guess he put it down cause she started to get stuck on him, until he left her. Sula felt real stupid when she found his license and realized that she never even knew his real name. Home girl was basically making love to a man that she didn't even know. He hit it and as soon as he noticed her getting attached he left her.
 

1937- What a friend!

Sula, Sula, Sula!!!! She has come back to town after ten years, and its been hell for everyone. She bothers everyone, especially her bestfriend Nel. She caught Sula fucking her husband. Nel handled it a whole lot different than I would have. She stood there and looked at them for a minute. I wouldn't have done that, I would have lost all of my mind. Regardless of the fact that I wasn't in love with him, he is still my husband, which means he is off limits. The females in class have agreed that if we were actually in Nels shoes we would raise hell. The guys on the other hand didn't have much to say about the situation. For the first time in about three weeks they were quiet. That girl Sula is completely nuts. She told Eva (her grandmother) that she just might burn her in her sleep the same way that Eva did Plum.

1927- Wedding bells

After years go by the girls are growing up. They are parting ways, and going off to live their lives without each other. This reminds me of my friend and I. Growing up we were close, but now at age eighteen we aren't as close a we were before. Would you be happy if your best friend was going off to college and leaving you? Sure, as a best friend you want to be happy and supportive for them, but its also pretty sad. Helene, Nel's mom is probably on cloud nine,  as you know she was never really feeling Sula like that. As a matter of fact , she's probably higher than cloud nine. She gets to plan her only child's wedding and she no longer has to worry about Sula.

I don't think that Nel will be herself with her husband. The only person that she is herself around is Sula. I know the feeling of leaving people behind when you go off to college, its not a good one.

1923- Let it burn!!

I always thought that if you dream of a wedding it meant that you were going to have a wedding soon. Apparently, in the 1920's they thought differently. To dream of a wedding symbolizes death, and that's exactly what happened to Hannah (you know the hoe).

 

She was burning! Eva used her "mama powers" and gained the strength to break a window and tossed herself out the window. She had a plan to throw herself over her child and stop the fire. Now that's what I call LOVE!! Eva risked her own life for her child. I understand why she snapped on Hannah earlier in the chapter. She had the nerve to ask "mama did you love us?" Now, it may have seemed crazy for her to take out Plum the way she did but after reading her explanation for her actions it makes a lot of sense. He was so attached to her and she didn't want him to live that way. She wanted him to die as a man not as a big baby stuck under his mother. Was Hannah capable of being that kind of mother? Maybe if she was, she wouldn't have said the things she said about Sula. That may explain why Sula stood and watched her mother burn.



 

 

1922- Land of weirdos

I'm starting to think that the people that all of the people that live in Sula's town are crazy. They do the strangest things and in their minds its okay. I would be terrified if a group of older men stood around at an ice cream shop and waited for little girls to walk by. In our class discussion we talked about how men just yell random things at women, and when the woman smiles or laughs she's basically telling the guys that she likes it.
Chicken little is a little boy that is introduced in the book. I cant lie, when I first read that name I thought about the movie Chicken Little.

 

Chicken little (the boy) was adventurous, he wanted to climb a tree. Sula took him up in the tree and that made his day. They were having so much fun, that Sula thought it would be cool to swing him around. He slipped and drowned. I believe this is why my mother always told me not to play around water. 

1921 Poor Poor Sula

I couldn't imagine watching my son suffer throughout his life , but I would never take matters into my own hands and set him on fire. That would just make it much harder to deal with. Eva was basically  running an in-home daycare. She went from being unable to feed her own children to taking care of children off the streets. One of her own, Hannah, is what we would call a "Jump off". It's one thing to love men, but to sleep with married men is a no go. If you choose to be a whore do it somewhere that your children will not be. Once your child sees you doing things like that  they feel as if its okay. This, in my mind, just takes me back to 1920. The only difference between Rochelle and Hannah's actions it that Hannah isn't getting paid for it. So, with that being said, is it okay that Hannah is in the life of Sula?  I believe that's why Nel's mother didn't like that fact that she was friends with Sula. I wouldn't penalize Sula for her mothers actions though, because its not her fault.

1920 Pretty Woman

If your mother was a prostitute, and you had a child, would you introduce your child to your mother?
I wouldn't introduce them until I felt my child had a clear understanding of what a prostitute is. I don't want my mother to influence my child to do anything I don't approve of. Unless she is willing to straighten up for my child she doesn't deserve to be apart of my child's life. Once she makes the much needed changes then she is more than welcomed. As far as letting my child be friends with a child like Sula, I would approve. I approve as long as they agree to hang out at my house and not hers. That childs mother is "easy". Shes a home wrecker and I wouldn't let her be around my child acting like that. I want my child to hold on to her innocents for as long as she can.

1919 Look no hands!

The in-class discussion on 1919 got a little hectic. No one, and I do mean no one, was sure if Shadrack had hands. I personally thought that he had hands, but once Professor Wesley got to asking her tricky questions I was no longer sure. Sometimes, she will have your mind messed up. Toni Morrison did her thing with this chapter, she really had us thinking. I think I'm going to really enjoy her work. If I saw a man wondering around outside, looking at the side walk like he's planning his next move, I might think he was on something. I would probably be like "Look at that crack head!" I'm sure that's what the people standing around were thinking too. Is it true that a lot of Veterans act this way? I'm kind of thinking that it is, what normal person would just come up with Suicide day? 
Where I'm from we would look at that fool like he is crazy and keep on moving. Although, that is very disrespectful to war veterans. No one wanted anything to do with "Suicide day", and I wouldn't either.