Sula: 1939 Summary & Analysis

Word gets out that Eva is being sent to a nursing home, and people learn that Sula is responsible for sending her grandmother there. This information—along with the knowledge that Sula slept with Nel’s husband—makes Sula despised in the Bottom. People remember the plague of robins that accompanied Sula’s return to the neighborhood, and conclude that the robins were a bad omen. The townspeople also mention how Jude Greene has left Ohio and moved to Detroit, where he never sends letters to his family.

In the coming months, Sula begins to have regular “accidents” and misunderstandings. One day, a child named Teapot knocks on her door to ask if she has any bottles. When Sula says that she doesn’t, Teapot trips and falls down the stairs. In the coming days, Teapot’s mother blames Sula for pushing her child down the stairs. She sends Teapot to the hospital, where she learns that Teapot has a fracture. Teapot’s mother is so angry with Sula that she responds by becoming a model parent—always clean and hard working.

Sula has other misunderstandings with the people in the Bottom. One day, an old man named Mr. Finley is sitting on his porch, eating chicken, when he chokes on a bone and dies—and Sula is blamed for this. The townspeople also make up other stories about Sula—it’s said that mosquitos don’t bite her, that she doesn’t belch when she drinks, etc. A woman named Dessie reports that she saw Shadrack tip his hat to Sula, in response to which Sula smiled and curtseyed. This, the town concludes, means that both Sula and Shadrack are wicked people.

The townspeople come to believe that God has sent Sula to do evil in the Bottom. For the time being, they decide not to do anything about this, since the purpose of evil is to be withstood, in demonstration of faith. Nevertheless, the people of the Bottom gossip about Sula’s evil—she betrayed her closest friend, Nel, ruining her life with lust.

The narrator switches to describing Sula’s experiences during her ten years away from the Bottom (before returning and sleeping with Jude, etc.). Sula travels to Detroit, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Macon, and San Diego. She only returns to Medallion because she misses Nel—and because she becomes bored with travel. In the cities where she travels, she finds all the people to be the same: hard-working, sweating, etc. Her only interactions in these cities are sexual. The narrator notes that if Sula had known how to make art—to paint or dance—then she would have found an outlet for her frustration. But instead, Sula can only bounce from one sexual partner to the other, never finding the relief she craves. Sula continues to sleep with men because she craves sadness. Her favorite moment of sex is the moment after, when her lover turns away from her and she can be alone with her feelings.

Sula then comes back to Medallion and immediately makes the acquaintance of Ajax, the same man who called her “pig meat” 17 years before. Ajax is now 38, working as a milkman, and Sula is 29. Ajax visits Sula at her house regularly, always offering her gifts—ice cream, berries, and, of course, milk. Surprisingly, Ajax is very courteous to Sula—and to other women in the Bottom. The narrator notes that Ajax is kind to the women in his life because he had learned to behave this way around his mother. Ajax’s mother was a resourceful woman who delighted in performing acts of magic and predicting the weather with spells. Ajax was civil with her, and in return, she let him do whatever he wanted.

The narrator continues describing Ajax. He loves only two things in the world: his mother and airplanes. Ajax takes long trips to big cities, and most people assume it’s because he’s giving himself elaborate vacations, but actually Ajax just likes to fly in planes because he dreams of working on an airplane one day. In the ten years of Sula’s absence, he had heard many stories about her, and how she was famously elusive and unpredictable. Thus, when Sula returns to town, he can’t resist paying her a visit. Ajax suspects that Sula will be just like his mother: uninterested in other people, and thus uninterested in having sex with him.

Eventually, Sula does decide to sleep with Ajax. She’s been charmed by his gifts, but the real reason that she sleeps with him is that he “talked to her,” and seems genuinely interested in what she thinks. Ajax was always a good listener, the narrator notes: he had lots of practice, growing up with five siblings and a mysterious mother.

Once, while Sula and Ajax are having sex, Sula imagines that Ajax is made out of gold. Beneath the gold, she thinks, there is alabaster, which gives him his powerful frame. Beneath the alabaster, she imagines, there is loam and soil. She then dreams of giving Ajax the “water” he needs to moisten his soil.

One afternoon, Sula and Ajax meet, and Ajax mentions the disappearance of Tar Baby. Tar Baby has been arrested for public drunkenness and sent to jail. Ajax went to the local jail, where he tried to convince the jailers to let Tar Baby change his clothes. Because the jailers—like Eva—regarded Tar Baby as a white man, they refused to let him change, saying that a white man shouldn’t be living among blacks if he wants to be “clean.” Sula feels herself growing attracted to Ajax. Ajax explains that he’ll need to fly to Dayton to see an air show soon. They make love, and afterwards Ajax bids Sula goodbye.

In Ajax’s absence, Sula tries to find more information about Ajax. She finds a copy of his driver’s license, which he’s left at her house. She learns that his real name is Albert Jacks (A. Jacks—“Ajax”). Exhilarated, she imagines the gold in Ajax’s flesh, and the alabaster beneath it. After this, Sula falls asleep. In her dream, she tastes “the acridness of gold... the chill of alabaster and… the dark, sweet stench of loam.”