In Sula by Toni Morrison, challenges the ideas of the standard white way of thinking by flipping it on its head, and challenging the cultural norms of the 20th century. Sula focuses on the controversial topics of its times to introduce the audience to the actual norms that they have kept hidden in their own minds and in the end, the book was banned because it was challenging those said norms. Toni Morrison writes as a be free, to write is to transform words into ideas, from one mind into many.

Sula was published in 1973, a time where the ideas of women’s rights were still a bit controversial, and view of black people and their rights were heavily controversial, with the civil rights act of 1975 banning racial discrimination not having passed yet and the 14th amendment only being passed a couple years before the publishing of the book. Many of the women’s rights were also passed only a couple of decades before the book and after the time the first couple of chapters of Sula are set in. While many of its ideas were controversial before, some of its ideas are no longer as controversial or uncommon as it was. It’s ban was very recent only in 2023 and 2024 for racial contents only in school settings.

Sula challenges the standard way a black community is seen by making them just a regular community. They aren’t different from the others, they suffer hardship, they help their neighbors, they get rowdy at times, and they unite together in order to push past their pains. Toni Morrison deconstructs the classic archetypes the white patriarchal thinking creates by simply creating a regular community. The book explores difficult legacies of the black community and how it evolves rather than staying stagnant like many believes. It also challenges the social norms of women by introducing characters such as Eva and Sula who disrupt the community standards of women’s marriage and modesty. Toni Morrisons writing of freedom isn’t about creating fantasy stories or make believe, its about scenarios that could have happened in real life and that’s why its controversial and radical, it could be real, the story of Sula isn’t some fantastical dream, while a fictional story, its setting and ideas aren’t something out of fairy tale.

In The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House by Audre Lorde, Lorde says a particularly memorable quote “I stand here as a black lesbian feminist, having been invited to comment within the only panel at this conference where the input of black feminists and lesbians is represented. What this says about the vision of this conference is sad, in a country where racism, sexism and homophobia are inseparable.”(Lorde, 1) I find this quote memorable as it connects to the books own identity itself, in a country where racism, sexism, and homophobia are inseparable, we as a community haven’t nearly paid enough attention to it, and in the case were we do pay attention like in Sula, it is silenced and hidden from a majority of audiences. The purpose of these conferences and books are to confront certain topics and ideas that are widely controversial, yet when spoken about, they are often ignored or silenced rather than actually getting the attention it deserves. Morrison writes freedom to write isn’t to create, its to highlight, these problems are real and the story of Sula could have been real.

In the 7th essay in Burn This Book, Talking To Strangers by Paul Auster. Auster talks about fiction as “language, and language is something we share with others, that is common to us all. From the moment we learn to talk, we begin to develop a hunger for stories.”(Auster, 68) Writing is a way to express oneself and our ideas and in Toni Morrisons case a way to express their radical and subversive ideas on race and gender norms. In words, there is no one to control you, you can write and do whatever you want, create stories and ideas that no one has thought of and transfer those stories into others through reading.

Writing is not about putting words on a page, its about sharing ideas and disrupting others, its about breaking rules and creating others. Sula history of being banned in seven different states due to its racial contents tries to limit its ideas and only further pushes its controversial writing. Toni Morrison’s writing as an act of freedom often results in banned or restricted books only further push themselves as radical subversive and liberatory pieces of literature and in the end only further pushes their words into ideas.