96 pages 3 hours read

Toni Morrison

Sula

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1973

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Reading Context

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What responsibilities does a mother have toward her children? Must she love them? Like them? Must she give them life? Prepare them for death? Must she give them joy? Or protection? Must she feed, clothe, and shelter them? How might these responsibilities be affected by race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status?

Teaching Suggestion: It might be helpful to provide students with an open mind diagram (an outline of a human head with space to write inside) and ask them to fill it with words and images related to motherhood. Then, pose the questions about motherhood and responsibility. Students may make changes or additions to their diagrams during the discussion. This exploration will prepare students to trace the theme Family, Community, and the Burden of Legacies.