Identity in Sula

Many works of contemporary American fiction involve one individual's search for identity in a stifling and unsympathetic world. In "Sula," Toni Morrison gives us two such individuals. In Nel and Sula, Morrison creates two individual female characters that at first are separate, grows together, and then is separated once more. Although never physically reconciled, Nel's self discovery at the end of the novel permits the achievement of an almost impossible quest - the conjunction of …

… one. Nel explains this to herself in this passage because it is what she never understood before. Nel misses the oneness she felt with Sula, not the relationship she never could recreate with Jude. Nel's recognition of this lost bond reunites the two women on a spiritual level and reconciles their lost self. The repetition and conjunction of the word "girl" allows Nel and Sula to become what they once were - one girl.