The female struggle for identity in SulaThe novel Sula by Toni Morrison illustrates the new feminist literature described by Hélène Cixous in "The Laugh of the Medusa" due of the final representation of the two main characters Nel and Sula. However, it is clear throughout the novel that Cixous, Gilbert, and Gubar's descriptions of the female characters are evident in this novel. The traditional figure of the submissive woman is paradoxically opposed to the new woman throughout the novel. Until the very last scene, it is unclear whether the reader should love or despise Sula for her independence. Although both Cixous's and Gilbert/Gubar's perspectives are evident in the text, ultimately it is the two women's friendship that prevails and is considered most important. This overarching celebration of femininity in all its dualistic and mysterious aspects is exactly what Cixous urges women writers to attempt. First there is the presence of the old stereotypical female character, a woman torn between conventional and non-traditional female roles. No difference is initially apparent between Morrison's Sula and any other women's literature of the past. Women are represented either as docile servants of men, like Nel, or as ball-busting feminist monsters like Sula. The hidden aspect of the novel lies beneath these superficial stereotypical roles, in the incomprehensible and almost inappropriate complicity of the two women. In Sula's final scene, Nel realizes that the emptiness within her is due to the loss of Sula, not Jude (Morrison 174). His friendship with Sula is all that matters. The development of a feminist reading from the point of view of Gilbert and Gubar...... middle of paper ...... but instead brings together the minds of the two women. “We were girls together,” Nel says, and the importance of this revelation to her becomes clear. She cries “circles and circles of sorrow” for the time lost between her and Sula (Morrison 174). Perhaps she also cries for a whole story of lost women separated by societal functioning and a world built by my men. Works Cited Cixous, Hélène. “The laughter of Medusa.” The critical condition: classic texts and contemporary trends. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998. 1453-66. Gilbert, Sarah M. and Gubar, Susan. “On infection in the sentence: the woman writer and the anxiety of fatherhood. » The critical condition: classic texts and contemporary trends. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998. 1361-74. Morrison, Tony. Sula. New York: feather print, 1982.