oni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon” is a coming of age novel following the protagonist, Macon “Milkman” Dead, whose identity is heavily involved with his name. He grows up in a society that is in poverty, including his best friend Guitar Bains and his aunt Pilate Dead, but his immediate family has wealth. Although the society he is born and raised in has adversities to overcome, the characters have many qualities that help them to stand out in their situations. "He closed his eyes and thought
The desire of gaining power over others and our communities seems to be one of the strongest human motives. Toni Morrison’s usage of names, flight as a means of escape, and the complex interplay of race and gender portrays Milkman’s search for his history, identity, and focuses on the African American community. In her novel, Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison uses flight as a means of escape, the function of names, and symbolism to convey how Milkman struggles to free himself from the power of others
In the article “African American Review” by Denise Heinze, Heinze beliefs that in “New Essays on Song of Solomon” by Valerie Smith, Smith explaining that Toni Morrison is mainly focus on the theme of race, gender history, and culture that is surrounded by Milkman in the story of song of Solomon. Yet Heinze explains “The essays offer a substantive review of familiar readings of the novel while making accessible new and difficult theoretical applications of narrative and language.”(Heinze 159-160)
A Journey of Realization Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is an elaborate book loaded with symbolism's and deeper meanings connected to relevant parts of American history during the 20th century. The reoccurring theme of wealth that Macon Dead pursues throughout his life, plays over into his son’s life, Milkman. Specifically Pilates gold that is an elusive treasure for Milkman, his father, and Guitar during the course of this novel. The way Macon Dead had lived his life, “with the mind of a white
may still have seen life in the leaves, much how an onlooker of the war might still see glory and hope. However, the rain washes the world of such falsehood, similar to the paradoxical usage of rain to cleanse Toni Morrison’s character Hagar of her illusions of grandeur in Song of Solomon (Foster 77). The cleansing rain that falls also causes much disarray in the mud it creates, with the “troops…muddy and wet in their capes,” being splashed by the vehicles of their commanding officers driving by