Summary [137-end]

Summary:

Sula is sick in Eva's bed and Nel, after not having spoken to her in a while, goes to visit her. When Nel enters, Sula sends her out to get a prescription for her from the drugstore. When Nel comes back, they talk about Sula and the way she is leading her life. Sula claims that because she is a colored woman, she might as well have the same responsibilities as a man. Sula also realizes that she doesn't need a man to be happy and that she is not lonely, even though Nel believes she is. She feels complete with her life because she feels like she has lived, as opposed to the other women who just slave over the men in their lives. They continue talking and the topic of Jude comes up. Sula tells Nel that Jude meant nothing to her and that she never loved him. Nel feels completely shocked and upset because Sula has no consideration for her feelings at all. Later, Sula dies and no one comes for her. Sula's death makes everyone in the town happy but people start caring for their loved ones less and less. Her death makes everyone bitter towards everything. Shadrack remembers his only visitor, the little girl. He realizes that that little girl was Sula. Shadrack starts going around town singing and ringing his bell because it is National Suicide Day. The town starts to follow him and the crowd of people turned into a parade. They enter the unfinished tunnel and the water ends up taking many of them under the current. Only a few survive. In 1965, Nel remembers what the Bottom was like years before. She goes to visit Eva in the nursing home and Eva accuses her of killing Chicken Little and Nel realizes that she is not perfect. In the end, Nel cries out to Sula.