Song of Solomon (Essay Sample)

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Song of Solomon The Song of Solomon is based on an unnamed city in Michigan called simply "Southside," an action directed at many black urban communities that formed during and after the Great Depression in cities throughout the Americas but especially in the Northeast, Midwest and California. Between 1916 and 1970, more than six million black Americans fled the South. Often referred to as the Great Migration, this migration of many people irresistibly shaped the locations and numbers of black people in America. It was one of the central themes of cultural production during the Harlem Renaissance, perhaps best illustrated in Jacob Lawrence's historic Migration series. Like Toni's first two novels, The Bluest Eyes and Sula, Song of Solomon (1977) is a story for years to come. Unlike his first two novels, Song of Solomon in the middle is a young man’s story. In fact, Song of Solomon is the first of Morrison's novels to have a man as the main character (Blake 77). The novel draws on the traditions of various myths, especially biblical, Greek-Roman, and African to create distinct African-American narratives. “In fact, genuine myth, living myth, had traditionally been associated with primitive societies in which the myth presupposes not ‘a tale told but a reality lived’ even our sophistication, however, does not preclude our depending on myth for more than entertainment” (Leslie 69). The story requires the reader to participate in order to integrate seemingly inconsistent aspects of the story in order to make everything logical and logical. Milkman, the main character in the Song of Solomon, is a self-centered, contemptuous, and rootless man who begins to seek financial gain for himself and ends up finding his family story. Through the process of learning about his history, Milkman matures, learns responsibility, transcends personal selfishness, and creates a meaningful life focused on managing his family history (Blake 79). “He asked Papa where he was born. Papa said Macon. Then he asked him who his father was. Papa said, “He’s dead.” Asked him who owned him, Papa said, “I’m free.” Well, the Yankee wrote it all down, but in the wrong spaces … and in the space for his name the fool wrote, “Dead” comma “Macon” (Morrison 53). Milkman's life can be seen as a microcosm of one aspect of the black experience. By reading his story, we can imagine what it was like to be a young black man living in a society full of white men. Along the way, we learn that while society creates seemingly insurmountable obstacles (such as racism), it is up to us to overcome those barriers and create meaningful, meaningful lives for ourselves, using our innate skills and abilities. For example, one observes: “You think that darkness is just one color, but it is not. There are five or six types of darkness. Some are silk, others fur. Some are just plain empty. Some like fingers. And it does not always. It moves and changes from one black to another. To say that something is completely black is to say that something is black” (40). We also learn that the way we look at ourselves and our lives is more important than the way others look at us, and that seeing ourselves as part of a larger human society and recognizing that we have the right to choose how we react to situations gives us strength. In fact, from the likes of Milkman, we learn that obstacles are not insurmountable but can be viewed as obstacles along the way to success. Although we get a glimpse of the family of the Dead before liberation, the main plot of the novel The Great Migration and its effects. Yet the history of the Middle Ages and slavery deeply informs the lives of the characters and the events in the novel. The biblical reference to the Song of Solomon suggests a broader history, while illuminating the relationship between African American history and biblical guidelines such as the story of Exodus, which focuses heavily on black American culture. Song of Solomon takes an unusual approach to such aspects as structure and context. Morrison is known for his powerful metaphors and his use of detail to establish the tone or tone of voice. For example, in Chapter 1, to find out the fact that Southside residents tend to rely on local gossip about their stories rather than the newspapers, they often ignore events that affect the black community, the narrator tells us that "word of the word went." Reflecting the oppressive poverty of the people of Southside, we see women "ready to see what the tails or entrails may be of sacrifice." And in Chapter 11, to create the sense of a small, rural community, the narrator introduces the women of Shalimar, Virginia, "walking as if going somewhere, but holding nothing in their hands." In these same lines, the Song of Solomon deals with the themes of flight, in terms of emotions, with gestures both in the flight of runaway slaves and later in the flight of black Americans during migration. For instance Macon speaks; “Let me tell you right now the one important thing you'll ever need to know: Own things. And let the things you own own other things. Then you'll own yourself and other people too” (55). This enlightens education as it involves an incident in which Macon Dead prevented Milkman (his son) from visiting his aunt Pilate telling him that he could use the time to do other things. Macon Jr. disagrees with Pilate and does his best to banish his son from him by choosing to teach him how to handle the task at hand. Morrison, by launching a novel in medias res (among objects), challenges the audience to recreate the events leading up to the first scene by combining pieces of news and captions of dialogue provided by various characters. Because Milkman cannot be confined to the boundaries of society, the movement extends beyond the circle, from Milkman's personal view, to the black community, to society as a whole (Michael 482). We can imagine Milkman's life as a dive in the lake and his experience as he created an ever-growing series of waves that engulfed the lives of those around him. In this way, we are given a universal view of human development through the experiences of the individual, because we recognize that by following the growth and development of Milkman, we also see the growth and development of the human mind. But as a promise of freedom, so does the promise of emigration. Wherever they moved, black people continued to be discriminated against, although they often found themselves in new ways in the "free" north. Here, black people encountered red lines, housing contracts and other segregation strategies, which created new difficulties as it introduced new cultural and political structures to black communities across the country. In Song of Solomon, for example, the main character Macon "Milkman" Dead, is the first black person to be born in a local hospital despite coming from a middle-class family (Michael 483). Similarly, a few characters in the novel respond to the ongoing white supremacist terrorist attack, by forming a black terrorist group to justify strong white supremacy. At the heart of the Song of Solomon is the ongoing dialogue between the muds of African American’s haunted history and the opportunity to fly. Comparisons between Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, both of which have a very rich historical background, when it comes to historical and biblical context. In addition, both novels have a central theme in their desire for self-awareness, maturity, personal space and function as a member of human society. The Dead Milkman of the Song of Solomon and the Invisible Person of the novel of the same name combines the whole realm of the young man's search for meaning (Russell 339). Both men are African Americans but have very different backgrounds. Milkman Dead is a well-to-do family member who seems to have no prejudice against people. His youth is being cut off from the African American continent because of his father’s attitude and his keeping the separation of his family. Initially, the Milkman Dead was a young man obsessed with the desire for gold and wealth, having no regard for his background or his identity or his place in society. Unlike Milkman, the Invisible Man is a young man bound to extreme poverty, racism and bigotry, power struggles, lack of self-esteem, lack of family, and even after college expulsion, lack of guidance (Roberta 183). However, he has t...