I read Sula a couple months ago, and haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since, particularly a single quote. I know Sula is widely acknowledged as a brilliantly written novel, but for some reason, this particular line is seldom mentioned in that discourse (at least as far as I’ve seen). It comes from a scene between Eva and her daughter, Hannah: “What you talking’ ‘bout did I love you girl I stayed alive for you.”
To me, this line acts as a sort of emotional climax to one of the book’s earlier themes, the harsh realities of survivalist motherhood. It’s a brutally concise way of expressing how, for a lot of women like Eva, love often couldn’t be tender, because necessity always came first. Eva neglected her children emotionally at times, that’s not in dispute, but that line also forces you to reckon with what she did do: she stayed alive. That was her version of love, and it wasn’t nothing. I’m not trying to paint Eva as a hero, she’s a deeply complicated character and plenty of her choices were more clearly reprehensible. But this line fits her so perfectly. It’s unapologetic and its utter power has stuck with me since reading it.
Anyway, I’d love to hear what your underrated quotes are, and why they mean so much to you.
by atoz_0to9