Sula

Sula Summary | Introduction Summary

The story begins by telling how the neighborhood called the "Bottom" of the town of Medallion is being destroyed to make room for a city golf course. We learn about how the neighborhood used to be when people would hear singing and music and see dancing. We learn how outsiders would see happiness but never look deep enough to see the people's pain. This part of town is where the Negroes lived, and it all started with a "joke" - laughter on the outside, pain on the inside.

The Bottom began when a white farmer promised freedom and land to one of his slaves after completing a certain amount of work. The slave did his work and asked for his "payment." The farmer told him he had wanted to give him land in the "Bottom" which was really in the hills, but because it was so rich and fertile up there, he had decided to give him land in the valley instead. The slave begged for land in the "Bottom" and the farmer agreed. The joke is that the land required backbreaking work and the seeds washed away down the hill. This is how the "Bottom" became the Negro neighborhood. The farmer had told his slave that the hills are the bottom of heaven, and, despite the hard work, it was so beautiful that people often wondered if he was not right.