How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Year.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had to set about creating something else. (1922.8)
Oppressive gender roles anyone? Even at twelve, Sula and Nel know that being girls limits them in profound ways. The fact that they have already internalized these limits at such a young age shows us how encoded these gender roles are in society.
Quote #2
While Eva tested and argued with her men . . . Hannah rubbed no edges, made no demands, made the man feel as though he were complete and wonderful just as he was. (1921.39)
Although Hannah takes a nontraditional approach to sex, she seems fairly traditional when it comes to her dynamic with men.
Quote #3
So it was rage, rage and a determination to take on a man's role anyhow that made him press Nel about settling down. (1927.7)
Men are as subject to prescribed gender roles as women, and these roles can be just as limiting and oppressive. Jude feels like a failure because he can't do the work he wants. He can't exercise his masculinity through his job, so the next best thing is through marriage. Although he doesn't initially intend to get married, the need to feel like a man creates this desire in him.
Quote #4
Selfish. Ain't no woman got no business floatin' around without no man. (1937.22)
One of Sula's great flaws, at least in Eva's eyes, is that she has the audacity to live her life as a single woman. Need we say more?
Quote #5
Teapot's Mamma got a lot of attention anyway and immersed herself in a role she had shown no inclination for: motherhood. (1939.7)
Although traditional gender roles dictate that women become mothers, they don't all have the desire or ability to be good ones. Should women like Teapot's Mamma still have kids? What compels women to have children when they don't really want them?
Quote #6
The narrower their lives, the wider their hips. (1939.43)
This is how Sula thinks about women and their relationships to men. Wide hips suggest these women have had kids, and Sula sees this as truly limiting. Although many of the women in the Bottom love and enjoy their children, Sula doesn't see this as a possibility.
Quote #7
Ajax was very nice to his women. His women, of course, knew it, and it provoked them into murderous battles over him in the streets. (1939.58)
Are stereotypes about women being perpetuated here? The idea that these women belong to Ajax reflects a stereotypical gender dynamic in which women are the property of men. The fact that the women fight each other instead of Ajax seems pretty stereotypical, too.
Quote #8
You can't do it all. You a woman and a colored woman at that. You can't act like a man. You can't be walking around all independent-like, doing whatever you like, taking whatever you want, leaving what you don't. (1940.9)
This passage tells us some things about both men and women. We learn that Sula is doubly oppressed because she is a woman of color. And we also learn that Nel sees men as greedy, selfish, and careless. Jude's departure from her life has profoundly impacted her opinion of the opposite sex.
Quote #9
Then I really would act like what you call a man. Every man I ever knew left his children. (1940.44)
Stereotypes aren't limited to women. Sula articulates a common stereotype about men: that they can't or won't stick around to raise their kids. This is certainly the case for the men in this novel.
Quote #10
"I always understood how you could take a man. Now I understand why you can't keep none." "Is that what I'm supposed to do? Spend my life keeping a man?" "They worth keeping, Sula." "They ain't worth more than me. . . ." (1940.57-10.60)
Sula's self-worth prevents her from succumbing to the pressures associated with her gender. Does this possibly make her the hero of the novel?