Song Of Solomon Essay

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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 man” didn’t portray good values to his son. He was a greedy landlord who’s desire for material objects overflows into Milkman’s own desires. “You’ll own it all. All of it. You’ll be free. Money is freedom, Macon. The only real freedom there is.”…show more content…
They have a back and forth where Guitar accuses Milkman of stealing the gold and shipping it down to Virginia. Milkman told him how he was just helping someone move a crate, which for an old friend of Milkman seems incredibly uncharacteristic and convenient. Guitars current mind set and point of view at this time was inline with Milkman’s earlier thinking more similar to his father’s. Morrison shows this by using words like “selfishness” and “indifference” in Guitars description of him. The fact he is telling the truth shows a large character change from the beginning of the book where him helping someone without personal gain would never happen. Morrison reinforces the depth of Milkman and Guitars relationship concerning the matter with, “he also knew that they’d even discussed it starting with Milkman’s not coming to his mother’s rescue in a dream he had.” Seeing that the mere idea of a bag of gold being attainable can drive a friend to the point of killing over it attributes to the obvious fact of how large a motivator money can be. The gold never shows up as an actual object during this story making it all a mental construct that drove these two desires to having Guitar, a good friend of Milkman, nearly kill him. During my reading of Song of Solomon the gold was a good place marker for me to understand where Milkman’s moral compass was facing.
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