"I know what every colored woman in this country is doing." – "What's that?": An exchange in Sula and Nel's final conversation in Toni Morrison's "Sula"

In their final conversation in Toni Morrison's "Sula", Sula claims to understand Nel because "I know what every colored woman in this country is doing." Nel's response may confirm Sula's claim to know and just ask for clarification: "What's that?" But the need for clarification derives from placeholders in Sula's statement: both the interrogative pronoun "what" and the general "doing" are waiting to be replaced by specifics, with "what" even picked up by Nel's "that" (with another "what" asking for Sula's response). So Nel's question can also be seen as a provocation that challenges Sula's self-positioning as the one who knows, as with each woman asserts her agency in the exchange. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 14 April 2021)