Sula Exam Study Sheet
Instructions: You will be asked to answer five (5) questions for the test. The questions will be selected at random by the computer. Each of your answers must be at least three (3) paragraphs in length or a minimum of fifteen sentences (roughly 250 words), though a more thorough answer may be longer. Use the text to support your answers. Note: You may use your notes and/or books to complete the test.
1. The Bottom is almost a character in the novel. Explore how the genesis, evolution and demise of the Bottom is symbolic of race and class in America.
2. At the end of Part I, Nel gets married and Sula leaves the Bottom to lead an “experimental life.” Is this to be expected? Is either woman “successful” in her in life? Explain your answer.
3. What is the symbolic significance of Eva’s missing leg?
4. Who are the “Dewey’s” and what might they represent in the novel?
5. Compare and contrast Plum and Shadrack. What do they represent individually and collectively?
6. Why does Sula fail to understand the gravity of sleeping with Nel’s husband? How might her mother, Hannah’s example contributed (or not) to her behavior?
7. Explore how Nel’s trip with her mother Helene leads to her (Nel’s) self-discovery?
8. Discuss notions of “family” in the novel. How is family created, sustained, destroyed, etc?
9. Is Sula evil? Why might one think so? Why not? What do you think?
10. Consider the last pages of the novel. Why does Nel call out to Sula? Why is Sula’s last thought to tell Nel about her experience dying? Are things ever really resolved between Sula and Nel?
11. What did Shadrack mean when he said,” Always” to Sula? Is he condemning her or comforting her?
12. Consider Eva, Hannah, Helene and the other mothers in the Bottom. How did these women “mother” their children? Why? How did their parenting styles affect their children?
13. Explore Sula’s relationship with Ajax. How is it different from her other relationships with men? What does the reader learn about Sula from this relationship? What does Sula learn about herself?
14. There are many instances of “second sight” in this novel. Choose one or more to explore. Give a concise summary of the instance and explain its significance in relationship to the novel.
15. What is the significance of the tunnel? What did it represent? What could it mean that it swallowed up many of the town’s long-time inhabitants? What could it mean that the tunnel swallowed up these people on National Suicide Day?
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