There are several themes in Toni Morrison's novel Sula that deal with opposites, including love and hate and good and evil. These themes are illustrated by many of the characters, such as the main characters Sula and Nel, Sula's grandmother Eva, and the townspeople. Sula and Nel meet when they are 12 and become best friends, but as they grow older, their interests and values pull them apart. The love Nel has for Sula as her best friend turns to hatred when both females betray each other. Although after Sula's death at the end of the novel, Nel realizes that Sula is good not bad, and that she loves Sula more than she hates her.
Both characters are African American females living in a racially segregated, conventional small town in Ohio. As they become women, Nel accepts the conventional role for women, marries, has children and conforms to her society. She is therefore viewed as good. Sula, on the other hand, rejects the social conventions that Nel follows. She is determined to be free and not marry and have children. "I don't want to make somebody else. I want to make myself" (92). She goes off to college and big city life after Nel's marriage. She also has many sexual partners. Because of her behavior, she is viewed as evil. When she returns home after 10 years, she is hated by everyone including Nel because of her unconventional behavior. Also, Sula sleeps with Nel's husband causing them to break up. Nel and the other townspeople blame Sula for all the bad things in town, even the plague of robins that arrive in town just before Sula does, calling it "evil days" (89). They also condemn Sula for sleeping with white men, although this may or may not be true, but they are looking for ways to hate her. When a neighbor chokes to death on a chicken bone after he sees Sula, the townspeople blame his death on her. When Sula sends her grandmother Eva into an old age home, the townspeople call her a bitch, and a "roach" (112). The theme...