“It was on that train, shuffling toward Cincinnati, that she resolved to be on guard-always. Helene remarks that neither she nor her daughter will speak Creole, the language of her estranged mother. Rochelle speaks in Creole to Helene and Nel and is surprised to find that Helene has not taught Nel the language. ‘And neither do you.’” 27Īfter encountering her mother, Rochelle, in New Orleans for the first time since Childhood, Helene seeks to distance herself further from this woman who brings her shame. ‘I don’t talk Creole.’ She gazed at her daughter’s wet buttocks. She says that everyone is dying, but considers her route to death to be nobler than that of her peers. Though Nel thinks Sula should have settled down and had children, Sula takes in pride in her decision not to conform. On her deathbed Sula expresses to Nel her thoughts about the accepted lifestyles and positions of women in Medallion. Me, I’m going down like one of those redwoods. But the difference is they dying like a stump. “‘You think I don’t know what your life is like just because I ain’t living it? I know what every colored woman in this country is doing.’
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