The Character of Shadrack in Sula by Toni Morrison

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

In Sula, Toni Morrison portrayed in an elegant form many problems: friendship, motherhood, stereotypes about families and women, post-traumatic disorder, fears, and war. The latter aspects are especially troubling now because, in todays unstable world, conflicts with the use of brutality and weapons do not subside. And this leaves scars on ordinary people and prevents them from making friends, starting families, and contributing to society. Such people, in other words, lose the opportunity to integrate into society. Others, who did not survive the war or waited it out in the rear, do not forgive people for manifestations of weakness and fear. Toni Morrison in Sula describes the problem of how society perceives post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through the figure of Shadrack and his way of life after the First World War.

Main body

Shadraks existential fear overtook him after seeing how his comrades died and how quickly and irrevocably a person can lose his life. Toni Morrison focuses not on the end of life but on how this end is sudden and spares no one. Shadrack does not care about losing his life: It was not death or dying that frightened him, but the unexpectedness of both. (Morrison 14). Now, constantly putting his life in order, he connects it with the inevitability of death, which he cannot control and stop. The order that he keeps in an obsessive-compulsive disorder manner gives him peace. Death makes Shadrack lose his subjectivity and independence, as he feels like a weak victim experiencing existential fear.

The manifestation of the desire to regain subjectivity becomes the National Day of Suicide proclaimed by Shadrack. He claims to be haunted by the smell of death all day long (Morrison 16). The National Suicide Day allows him to prepare for death and relive it again. One can say that Shadrack dies anew with each National Suicide Day. He wants to die countless times inside so that he will not be overtaken by a terrible surprise when he dies physically (Kpohoue 2-3). From fear, Shadrack goes crazy, but society does not provide him with any support. Moreover, in the example of Eva, Sulas grandmother, one can see what kind of cruelty they are ready for people with mental disorders. Eva kills her son, Sulas uncle, who lost mental stability after the war. People, understanding the harmlessness of Shadrack, nevertheless kill him not physically but with social and psychological isolation, which only Sula decides to violate, for which he receives a condemnation.

Society does not accept Shadrack because it does not know and does not want to fit him into the system built by distrustful residents. Shadraks madness ruins the ostentatious rationalization and stiffness: Shadrack exhibits traits that threaten to unravel the tightness of those residing in The Bottom (Steverson 149). Sula, marginalized due to gender stereotypes, tries to understand Shadrack while he evaluates her act and attempts to make friends. Shadrack is left with social isolation and ignorance, a terrible form of psychological violence. However, this violence is not scary for Shadrack, who saw the death of his comrades and their torn bodies with his own eyes? It is evident that the world war which Shadrack undergoes several years ago has a far-reaching and inveterate effect on him, casting an enormous shade over his heart (Yan 8). Shadrack, after the war, seems to acquire new eyes through which he sees the world differently. He is little disturbed by public condemnation; he does not think of himself as a social subject with connections.

Conclusion

Shadrack, who has lost his mind from the horrors of war, finds peace in an orderly life in the manner of obsessive-compulsive disorder. It gives him confidence in the future and the illusion of control over death. It seems to him that, following his rituals, he will be able to prepare for her and catch it. He creates National Suicide Day, during which his madness culminates and takes him to the social level. Society treats him with caution but does not perceive him as a criminal or a bully. Shadrack remains outside the incredulous people trying to live by traditions and norms.

Works Cited

Kpohoue, Ferdinand. Emasculation of Male Characters as Seen Through Sula by Toni Morrison. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, vol. 7, no. 2, 2018. Crossref.

Morrison, Toni. Sula. Third printing, Knopf, 1976.

Steverson, Delia. Dont Nobody Wanna Be Locked up: The Black Disabled Veteran in Toni Morrisons Sula and August Wilsons Fences. CLA Journal, vol. 64, no. 1, 2021, pp. 14765. Crossref.

Yan, Rui. Analysis on Characters Behavioral Alienation in Sula. OALib, vol. 09, no. 02, 2022, pp. 113. Crossref.

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The Character of Shadrack in Sula by Toni Morrison

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