Rural Practices, Culture, and Ideas in the Novel Sula and Winesburg, Ohio (Book Review Sample)

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Rural Characterization in Sula and Winesburg, Ohio
This analysis focuses on the similarities and differences of rural characterizations between Sula by Toni Morrison and Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. The paper will begin by analyzing the common rural themes in the two texts, including rural isolation, resistance to change, and rural-urban migration. The next part of the paper will discuss the unique rural practices, culture, and ideas in each novel. 
Similarities 
           The first similarity in the characterization of the rural areas in Sula and Winesburg, Ohio, is rural isolation. The main characters in Sula, Nel, and Sula became friends because of being lonely. “They were solitary little girls whose loneliness was so profound it intoxicated them…” (Morrison 51). The book continues to explain that Nel was an only child, and so was Sula. Notably, they did not have siblings, neighbors, or friends of their age to interact or play with. As a result, they spent time alone until they became friends. “When Nel, an only child, sat on the steps of her back porch surrounded by the high silence of her mother's incredibly orderly house…” (Morrison 51). It is evident that Nel was always surrounded by silence in her mother’s house. “Sula, also an only child, but wedged into a household of throbbing disorder constantly awry with things, people, voices and the slamming of doors, spent hours in the attic behind a roll of linoleum galloping through her own mind…” (Morrison 51). Similarly, Sula was always alone, lonely, and lost in her thoughts. 
           The theme of rural isolation and loneliness is also common in different stories in Winesburg, Ohio. For instance, in