Sula

             This is the meaning of friendship, a theme central to Sula. Friendship is one of the most dear things in the lives of everyone. It supports, helps, comforts, and at times appropriate, provides a needed kick in the ass. From Sula, the book, we learn the importance of friendship, the pain of betrayal, and the pain of loss.
             Growing up is hard. That is an indisputable fact. However, when you have a friend, you have someone to grow up with, someone to share your pain. Friendship is the most important thing in a child's life. From Sula, we watch the girls, Nel and Sula throughout their friendship. The bonds of a true friendship can never be broken. Separation provides no obstacle, neither does the passage of time. It is their ability to pick up where they had left off which makes their friendship so great.
             Betrayal may be defined as harm of disloyalty to another person. Harm does not always have to be physical, which would fade, it is the feel-it-deep-in-your-soul harm that hurts the most. Take sleeping with your best friend's husband for example, that one act, committed out of ignorance on Sula's part of Nel's feelings. Sula did not realize how she would hurt Nel, by sleeping with Jude. After all, they did use to share ice cream and the like. This act ripped their friendship apart, completely destroying their relationship, also ruining the relationship between Jude and Nel. It takes years to build trust, and build a close relationship, yet it takes only minurtes, seconds even to make a bad decision and completely ruin that friendship.
             Loss, or grief can change a person completely. The loss of life is not necessarily the worst kind of loss. It is when you lose something that was so good, so sweet that is the most painful thing. Nel lost the most in this book. She lost her best friend of many years, and her husband. She lost the two people who were the closest and best friends she had, to eachother.