An Essay on Toni Morrison's Novel Sula: A Sacrificial Scapegoat:

In 1993, in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Toni Morrison created a story of children seeking wisdom from an old woman. The children implore, “For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief’s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul. “ If Morrison is that wise old woman, she certainly succeeds in that she does not tell her reader what to believe, or what to fear. 

Part of Morrison’s beautiful talent for writing lies in her ability to create ethically ambiguous situations for her readers. In the novel Sula, the reader is left to ask “Is Sula truly a menace to society, as the community seems to think she is? Is she truly as bad as the people think she is? Or is ‘bad’ all a matter of perspective?” Sula lives life by a different standard than the people of Bottom, and as a result they alienate her in their need for a scapegoat. Although the community labels Sula as evil, thinking that they would be better off without her, in all reality, having Sula as a single focus for their misfortunes leads to them living happier, healthier lives. 

Their reasons for deciding that Sula is evil are absurd, showing that their labeling of Sula as such has more to do with their need for someone to blame than it does with Sula herself. In support of their claim they list such ludicrous things such as the fact that “Sula did not look her age” (115). Although it may be true that Sula, having lived the city life for the past ten years, has not aged as roughly as the rural women of Bottom, it is hardly proof that she is evil.