Passing the Torch: An essay exploring the mother/daughter relationships in Toni Morrison's novel, "Sula"

In Sula, Toni Morrison has created an unforgettable story about the friendship of two African America women, and how their maturation and search for self-hood is developed in a

female-centered family structure. In Andrea O Reillys book, Toni Morrison and Motherhood: Politics of the Heart, OReilly shows how in Toni Morrisons writings, Morrison sees mothering as a culturally determined experience. OReilly tells us that:

Morrison, building upon the traditions of char motherhood, positions motherwork in African American culture as a political chore in its commitment to empowerment and thus can not be understood or appreciated from the ideological genus Lens of sensitive mothering. (32)

OReilly further explains that for the black culture, motherwork can be positioned by the tasks of preservation, nurturance, [and] cultural bearing . . . (32). By using OReillys model of the terce tasks of motherwork in a close reading of Toni Morrisons novel, Sula, I invent to show how the process of mothering directly impacts the ego development of the aboriginal protagonists, Nel and Sula. I will alike analyze how Nel and Sulas mothers and grandmothers ineffectively finish the three tasks of preservation, nurturance, and cultural bearing; thereby, prohibiting the process of healing.



I also argue that the racial oppression and economic hardship that the mothers in Morrisons novel experience clearly affect the way in which they perform the three tasks of motherwork.

First, central to this concept of motherwork is the task of preservation. It is the mothers primary coil responsibility to preserve or protect her children. OReilly elaborates that

. . . mothering for many black women, particularly among the poor, is about ensuring the physical survival of their children . . . (32). The poverty which constructs Eva Peaces reality, invariably threatens the survival of her children and distances her from any emotional connection.

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