Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews June 16, 2023 June 9, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
After Eva Peace's husband, BoyBoy, abandoned her, it is the kindness of her neighbors that kept her and her three children alive. Her baby Ralph, whom she nicknamed Plum, developed an impacted bowel. After listening to his piercing cries for days, Eva lubricated her fingers with lard and dug the compacted stools out of him, saving his life. Two days later, she left her children with a neighbor, Mrs. Suggs, promising that she would return within a few hours. She returned after 18 months. Over that time, she had mysteriously gained new wealth, but had also lost a leg. Her neighbors speculate that she deliberately placed her leg underneath a train in order to collect on an insurance claim.
When, later, BoyBoy briefly visited, Eva received him without outward signs of animosity. It appeared that he had come into a considerable sum of money. During his visit he never asked about his children, and when he left with his sophisticated, city girlfriend, Eva looks forward to the long-standing hatred she will hold for him.
With her mysterious money, Eva builds the rambling house where she now lives as a respected matriarch with her daughter and granddaughter, Hannah and Sula. The house also serves as home to three informally adopted children, all of whom Eva calls Dewey, and a never-ending stream of boarders. The Deweys become extremely attached to one another and consequently start first grade together despite their different ages. Tar Baby, a white alcoholic, lives in one room drinking himself to death.
Hannah and Eva both love "maleness." Eva enjoys flirting with men although she does not sleep with them. Hannah, on the other hand, sleeps with any man that takes her fancy, but she does not develop long-term relationships with them. When Plum returns from World War I, he is ravaged by his war experience and a heroin addiction. One night, Eva enters his bedroom to rock him in her arms. Afterward, she pours kerosene over him and burns him to death.
The contrast between Sula's and Nel's upbringing is startling. Nel's household is bound by the social standards that define the conventional meaning of "family." Sula's household is built on an unconventional family structure. She lives in a multigenerational household run by women. Whereas Nel's household is static and repressive, Sula's household is vibrant, active, and subject to constant change. A constant stream of boarders complements the long-term residents of her house. The differences in the houses are evident in the physical structures themselves. Nel's house is always in order and well-kept; Sula's house is huge and rambling, as Eva has added on additional rooms piece by piece over time. The houses symbolize the differing potential for growth and change in the girls' families.
Eva's actions in killing Plum, her son, represents the ambiguous power of love. Of all her children, Eva clearly loved Plum the best. This has not changed even with his return from the war as a heroin addict, and Eva's decision to kill him is an expression of her love for him. Because she loves him she is unable to watch as he plummets further into addiction, and so she kills him. On one level, this is a sacrifice: a mother putting her son, whom she loves, out of his misery and thereby losing him. On another level, it is an act of selfishness: because she loves him Eva believes she has the right to decide what is best for him, and belives death is better than addiction. In the relationship of Eva and Plum, Morrison makes the claim that love is far more complicated than the way in which it is usually perceived. Love is not merely a thing of beauty and moral good, Morrison claims, it is rather a forceful amoral emotion that drives people to actions both selfish and selfless, both beautiful and horrid. In fact, as can be seen in Eva's killing of Plum, love is so complex and intricate; it can imbue a single action with both selfishness and selflessness. In other words, love is not subject to morality.
Please wait while we process your payment