"Most scary things is inside" : an exploration of morality and community in Sula and Paradise : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Abstract

In this paper I conclude that Toni Morrison's early work Sula and her later work Paradise explore similar themes about the limited nature of binary thinking, including reductive thinking about morality, community gender, and race. I argue that Paradise, perhaps because Morrison wrote it over 20 years later in a period that is better able to negotiate binaries though still largely imperfect, offers a solution to the problems with binary thinking Morrison introduces in Sula: communal solidarity based on moral hybridity. In order to support my analysis, I engage in a literary conversation with a few literary critics but base most of my paper on my own close reading of the texts.