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Sula

Book by Toni Morrison · 3 quotes · Ifs, Knows, Long

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AllIfsKnowsLongSulaYearsFirstsPeopleAliveDifferencesGriefHandsHateLonelinessAbsenceAnticipationBabyBedBirdButterflyChildren

Sula Quotes

“They held hands and knew that only the coffin would lie in the earth; the bubbly laughter and the press of fingers in the palm would stay aboveground forever. At first, as they stood there, their hands were clenched together. They relaxed slowly until during the walk back home their fingers were laced in as gentle a clasp as that of any two young girlfriends trotting up the road on a summer day wondering what happened to butterflies in the winter.”

FirstsTwoHomeHandsEarthTogetherYoungLyingWalksWonderForeverHappenedSummerLaughterPressesFingersWinterGentleGirlfriendButterflyPalmsRelaxedBack HomeCoffinsSummer DaysTrotting
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“She had been looking all along for a friend, and it took her a while to discover that a lover was not a comrade and could never be - for a woman. And that no one would ever be that version of herself which she sought to reach out to and touch with an ungloved hand. There was only her own mood and whim, and if that was all there was, she decided to turn the naked hand toward it, discover it and let others become as intimate with their own selves as she was.”

IfsSelfHandsTurnsLoversDecidedMoodNakedVersionsIntimateReach OutWhimComrade
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“The men began to trade tales of atrocities, first stories they had heard, then those they'd witnessed, and finally the things that had happened to themselves. A litany of personal humiliation, outrage, and anger turned sicklelike back to themselves as humor. They laughed then, uproariously, about the speed with which they had run, the pose they had assumed, the ruse they had invented to escape or decrease some threat to their manliness, their humanness. All but Empire State, who stood, broom in hand and drop-lipped, with the expression of a very intelligent ten-year-old.”

MenYearsFirstsStatesStoriesHandsRunningHappenedHeardHe ManExpressionTenIntelligentTradeThreatSpeedTalesEmpiresLaughedHumiliationOutrageAtrocitiesDecreaseHumannessManlinessBroomsEmpire State
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