Terms
a narrative device in which suggestions or warnings about events to come are dropped or planted.
What is foreshadowing?
The characters who have died (so far) in Sula.
Who are Chicken Little, Plum, and Hannah.
This character cut off their own finger to defend their friend.
Who is Sula?
The neighborhood that Sula grows up in, now gentrified.
What is “The Bottom”?
Which symbol is sometimes described as the shape of a stemmed rose.
What is Sula's birthmark.
The novel presents events from different characters’ viewpoints, often offering contradictory interpretations of the same events.
What is multiple POV?
January 3, 1919, a holiday invented by the war veteran, Shadrack.
What is National Suicide Day?
This character prefers the chaotic nature of her friend's homelife.
Who is Nel?
The proper name for the city, of which the "Bottom" is the segregated Black neighborhood and the valley is where the white people live.
What is Medallion, Ohio?
Which theme shows something that is complicated by race, gender, and societal roles.
What is identity?
When a story is told out of chronological order, shifting between different time periods and perspectives.
What is nonlinear narrative?
This character, when confronted with a scary situation surrounded by white men on a train car, flashed a smile to protect herself and her daughter. This was seen as a moment of weakness, and caused a rift to widen between this character and her daughter.
Who is Helene?
Ashamed of their mother’s past, this character raises their daughter stern and proper as a consequence.
Who is Helene?
A chaotic house with many newly created rooms and nonsensical doors that pile on top of each other.
What is the Peace house?
Which theme shows how romantic, platonic, and familial love are intertwined with sacrifice & pain.
What is: love manifests in multiple forms?
Author's word choice.
These characters serve to show the harmful effects of name shaping identity. These characters move as one unit, not even being given their own names and individuality.
Who are the Deweys?
The middle child of Eva who moved away from home, was a sickly child.
Who is Pearl?
The city where Helene’s grandmother lived.
What is New Orleans?
This theme shapes and restricts the lives of its members.
What is community?
The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
What is Juxaposition?
The history behind the name of the town this story is set in.
What is a racist joke about owning land?
Loves her child but does not like her.
Who is Hannah?
The setting where Chicken Little dies.
What is the river?
Which theme shows how duality and nuance, neither is wholly good or bad, and both are essential for a full and meaningful life.
What is chaos and order?