U3H6
CP ENGLISH 11-12
Name: ______________________________
Unit 3: Sister Outsider
“Sula” Introduction!
Date: _____________________
Section: 11.1 11.2 11.3
Toni Morrison (1931- ) is perhaps the most famous and
most celebrated African-American novelist alive today. She
was born in Ohio. Among her many accolades, she won the
Pulitzer Prive for her novel Beloved in 1998, the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 2012, and the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1993. She is a national icon and has often
appeared on television shows such as the Oprah Winfrey
Show. She also taught for many years at places like New
York University and Princeton University.
Today, we are going to begin reading her famous novel Sula
which was published exactly forty years ago in 1973. It will
touch on many themes from gender to race to friendship. In
the foreword to our book, Morrison admits that she
originally was going to start the novel with the long
paragraph on pages 7-8. Instead, she added the introduction
that now precedes (goes before) it on pages 3-6. We are going to start by trying to figure out
why she did this.
1. Read the long paragraph on pages 7-8 that she was originally going to use as the start of
the book. It describes the experiences of the character Shadrack as a soldier in World
War I.
2. What happens in this paragraph? What do we learn about Shadrack? (3+CS)
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3. What sort of mood or overall feeling does this paragraph create? Explain your answer.
(2+CS)
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Now, let’s go back and read the part she added before this section as a new introduction. It is
on pages 3-6. In this new section, Morrison will be describing the setting of most of the novel.
This setting is the black neighborhood known as “the Bottom” which exists in the fictional
(made-up) town of Medallion, Ohio.
4. How did black people come to live in this neighborhood? And how did it end up being
named “the Bottom?” (3+CS)
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5. The omniscient (all-knowing) narrator of this story is supposedly writing from when
the novel ends, which is in the year 1965. What sort of mood or overall feeling does this
new introduction create as the narrator begins to tell the history of this town? (2+CS)
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6. Why do you think Morrison decided to add this other introduction? Why did she choose
not to start the novel with Shadrack? (2+CS)
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