Sula Part 1

The first passage that stood out to me was on page 48 :
"The two women did not speak, for the eyes of each were enough for the other."
This reminded me a lot of the unspoken bond/friendship between women. Although they are mother and daughter and obviously know each other better, they still don't have to say anything to understand each other and come to the same conclusion. This happens at a very disturbing part of the novel, after Eva has lit her son on fire. In that moment where they are both looking at each other, they both know what just happend and there is an unspoken agreement to ignore the cause of the incident. It's hard to imagine how a mother would be capable of doing that to her son, but then I remembered the part in the beginning of when he was a baby- she put him out of his misery. To her, she was doing the same thing all over again. When Evan and Hannah are looking at each other in that moment, Hannah realizes what her mother had just done and for the time being chooses to say nothing. I can't really figure out why she didn't say more about it, but then the part where she actually sets herself on fire seems to represent all of her anger towards her mother bottled up over the incident.

The second passage I found was on page 83 when Jude's thoughts on his marriage to Nel are described:
"Without that someone he was a waiter hanging around a kitchen like a woman. With her he was head of a household pinned to an unsatisfactory job out of necessity. The two of them together would make one Jude."
This passage reminded me of the discussion we had in class about women's a men's roles and jobs. Without Nel, Jude feels "womanly" working in a kitchen, but if he is married it makes him "the man" or the head of the household. His marriage to Nel gives him the position of authority he longs for, and this is obviously an unhealthy reason to get married. Once he has a wife, he is in a higher position and can feel better about himself, creating "one Jude" as it stated in the passage. He doesn't feel whole until he has that bit of power that he isn't getting out of his career, so he needs to rely on a woman to make him feel manly. To me, this is kind of ironic. If men claim to be naturally smarter, more powerful and manly, why do they need a woman to prove this? If it is their natural character, and if they are so much better than woman, why is a wife such a vital part in making them feel powerful. It's sad that Jude needs someone he can dominate and use as an excuse for him unsatisfactory and "womanly" job in order to feel like a man.