Sula- first half

The first passage that I really liked and felt a connection to was on page 12. Morrison is describing hte life of Shadrack and the state he is in when he is released from the hospital.
She writes, "...the fact that he didnt even know who or what he was...with no past, no language, no tribe, no source, no address book, no comb, no pencil, no clock, no pocket hankerchif, no rug, no bed, no can opener, no faded postcard, no soap, no key, no tobacco pouch, no soiled underwear and nothing nothing nothing to do..."
I was drawn to this paragraph becasue it is highlighting things about his life that might be important (things inthe form of objects) but he does not have them. It was interesting to me to see the choice of objects that one might have that would have possible made Shadrack better off. The text that this reminds me of very much is "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brian. This was originally a short story that he expanded to a novel and it lists in a manner like in this passage all of the things that soldiers carried with them. For these men, their stuff was what differentiated them from eachother and told the reader of their pasts and the lives that they were missing to serve their coutnry. Morrison takes a twist of this though, because instead of connecting Shadrack to a place through these things on his person, he is without them and she uses the list in a very powerful way to tell the reader to what extent he is lost.

The second part of the reading I encountered and responded to is the entire last paragraph on p. 29 beginning "When Sula first visited the Wright house..." This passage reminded me of our conversation yesterday relating to the poem "As Children Together". The passage is divided in two between Sula's response to Nel's clean and more upsacle house and Nel's preference for Sula's "wolly house". I think that this is always true about people, especially when they are growing up. I remember that I would have much rather played over at my friends house than my own and my friends felt the same way. Each place and mother had different attributes that we envied by those who were not already used to them. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fense. This reminded me of yesterday's discussion because it is a snapshot of what the girls in the poem might have thought or said at one point when they were younger. I think that we will have to keep the poem in mind as we see how Nel and Sula grow up and respond to eachother as women.