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Jessica Diaz
Professor Noonan
ENC1102
01/20/2022
The Impact of Motherhood in Sula
Sula and Nel’s personalities are completely opposite, and their mothers are the reason for
that. Their upbringing was completely different. Nel’s mother wanted a life that was acceptable
by society for her daughter. Sula’s mother was more open and unconventional, with no regard
towards what others had to say. Their mothers shaped who they are as women, their roles in
society, and their actions when faced with obstacles.
Sula and Nel’s upbringing started with their mothers, and when viewed in a different
perspective it could be said it started with their mother’s mother. Nel’s maternal grandmother,
Rochelle, slept with multiple men for money; in turn, her daughter, or Nel’s mother, became the
woman she did to be nothing like her mother. In the novel Sula, Morrison writes: “Helene
Wright was an impressive woman, at least in Medallion she was. …. [She was a] woman who
won all social battles with presence and a conviction of the legitimacy of her authority” (18).
Unlike the way Rochelle raised Helene, Helene made sure she kept her home
conventional for Nel. Helene wanted Nel to be just like her, as Morrison states, “Under Helene’s
hand the girl became obedient and polite. Any enthusiasms that little Nel showed were calmed
by the mother until she drove her daughter’s imagination underground” (18). Every time Nel
wanted to think for herself, her mother would shut her down.
Helene’s way parenting was authoritative, dictating what Nel had to do and who she had
to be. Her way of raising Nel was like author Baumrind says, “She does not encourage verbal
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