horrified by her sexual openness, but they are also offended by her directness. To annoy her neighbors, Sula "came to their church suppers without underwear" (114) and even more, "they believed she was laughing at their God" (115). Once again, we see through the town's disapproval of Sula what it holds dear. If that wasn’t enough, she angers the town even more by openly mocking their beliefs. Sula's crime is not only her actions, but also the fact that she is not even slightly ashamed of them; she is evil because she has defied society's laws and has openly mocked them by refusing to even recognize their rule over her. Absorbed in this conception of evil her whole life, it is Nel who becomes the embodiment of the town's moral code when she gets married and is "one of them" (120), meaning a member of mainstream society. Instantly, her views become the same with those of the town and she "belonged to the town and all of its ways" (120). She is especially offended by Sula's behavior, because Sula sleeps with her husband. While Nel has used the town's moral code, Sula is in open defiance of it, and Sula is caught off guard by Nel's "possessiveness" (119), not really knowing that "marriage...had changed all that" (119), referring to their earlier tendency to "share the affection of other people" (119). Nel's outrage at Sula's actions is similar to the town's anger at Sula and we see the personal hurt that Sula's inconsiderate actions have caused.While society's view of evil is really based on the disapproval of anything that would break down way society works, Sula's view of evil is based on a different goal and she acts according to a different set of standards. In other words, "Sula was distinctly different" (118). Sula "had been looking all along for a friend" (122) and that is the goal she is really trying to reach. In sleeping with many men, she is sort of looking for a release for her "misery and...deep sorrow" (122). ...
