SECTION SIX, 1923

Summary

It is a sweltering hot summer day; there has been no rain in The Bottom for some time, and the land is shriveled and cracked. Hannah asks Eva, her mother, if she ever loved her children. Eva is furious at the suggestion that she might not have loved Pearl, Hannah, or Plum. She tells her daughter that her sacrifice to keep the three of them alive was proof of her love. Hannah then abruptly asks her mother why she lit Plum on fire, killing him. Eva talks about the many times she struggled to keep Plum alive, explaining how he almost died as an infant. She tells Hannah she had a hard enough time birthing Plum the first time; the drugs and the war had turned him into a child again, and this time she could not save him. She killed him out of love; she wanted to see him die as a man, not as a drug-induced idiot. Eva explains how she hugged Plum before she burned him.

After a nap, Hannah tells Eva that she dreamed of a red wedding dress, a frightening image of blood and violence. She also remarks that Sula has been acting up and bothering everyone, probably since she has recently turned thirteen and started her period. But everyone in The Bottom has been on edge lately because of the terrible heat, and strange things have been happening all over. Eva's comb is missing, and Sula's birthmark is changing shape and color, a fearful omen of bad things to come.

Everyone in The Bottom has been canning, preparing fruits and vegetables for the winter months. Hannah finds some canning jars and washes them. Eva goes to the window of her upstairs room and sees Hannah light the cooking fire in the yard. Hannah's dress catches on fire. Eva lifts herself out of her wheelchair and throws herself through the second story window, hoping to crawl across the yard to cover her daughter's body to put out the flames. Before Eva can get to her, Hannah goes flying out of the yard, gesturing wildly. Neighbors see the fire and try to douse the flames, but the steam sears Hannah's flesh. An ambulance comes, but Hannah dies on the way to the hospital. Eva nearly bleeds to death before someone notices her injuries from the second story fall.

In the hospital, Eva remembers Hannah's dream about the red wedding dress; she thinks to herself that dreams of weddings always mean death. She then remembers how she jumped out the window and watched from the bushes as her daughter burned to death. Suddenly she realizes that Sula had been on the porch watching her burning mother and doing nothing to help. When Eva tells her friends about Sula doing nothing to help Hannah, they all say that the girl was probably in shock, struck dumb and paralyzed by fear. Eva, however, believes calm observation of her mother dying was intentional and evil.

Notes

The primary focus of this chapter is the continuation of the ongoing mother/child tragedy in the Peace family. A strong bond between Hannah and her mother is established when they speak to one another openly about motherly affection and Plum's death. Then Eva's plunge from the second story window shows the ridiculously tragic gesture of a mother to save her daughter. It is a scene in direct and stark contrast to the earlier one with Plum in which Eva saved her son by burning him to death. Now Hannah is consumed by fire, and Eva tries to save her from it. The failed attempt leaves Eva helpless and wounded under a bush until an observant neighbor finds her. Her grief over Hannah's death nearly kills her at the hospital, where she suffers in silence until someone notices the extent of her injuries.

In contrast to Eva's love and sacrifice for Hannah, Sula calmly sat on the porch and watched her mother burn, never trying to help her. When Eva recalls Sula's lack of action, she calls her young granddaughter cruel and evil. Not only has Sula lost her mother, she has also lost her grandmother, for Eva no longer trusts her. In fact, the old woman openly condemns Sula and blames all kinds of strange occurrences on her. Sula's lack of maternal guidance will become an increasingly complicated facet of her personality.

The fact that Hannah was well liked in the community is clearly seen in this section. The women of The Bottom rush to save her, enduring the sweltering, cracking heat. When they are unsuccessful, they mourn her death, in spite of the fact that she has slept with all their husbands. Her death is a loss to them, for they enjoyed her lively personality. In contrast, Sula is not well liked, for she is considered strange by all. The attitude of the community towards her makes the young girl feel even more isolated.