Sula Gender Quotes

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?

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?

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.