Abandonment Of Women In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

Alexandra Gianakopoulos
Ms. Biester
IB English 12
2018

Abandonment of Women in Song of Solomon

In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, men discover themselves through flight. While the motif of flight is liberating for men, it has negative consequences for women. Commonly, the women of Song of Solomon are abandoned by men, both physically and emotionally. Many times they suffer as a result as an abandonment, but there are exceptions in which women can pick themselves up or are undisturbed. Morrison explores in Song of Solomon the abandonment of women by men.
Chronologically, the first example of women being abandoned by men in Song of Solomon is found in the story of Milkman’s great-grandmother, Ryna. Ryna was the wife of Solomon, who left

her behind to fly back to Africa. Solomon’s flight is first supposed to be taken as excellent, like he is taking back his identity and escaping the life he was forcefully given in America. That is what he is doing, but in doing so he is abandoning his wife. Ryna becomes stricken with grief, and unable to cope, throws herself into a ravine. Hagar’s story is a similar situation. She and Milkman have a long-term relationship in which she devotes herself entirely to him and he never reciprocates these strong feelings. He breaks off their long relationship in a very blasé way, and all the while thinks of himself as a victim of his oppressive life, wanting to fly away and find something that will make him happy.
Both Ryna and Hagar are abandoned by men who want to fly away from lives that are unfulfilling. Solomon leaves to live in Africa, and eventually Milkman leaves to find his roots in the South. Both of these men wanted to discover their identities, but in the process did not realize what they were leaving behind. The immaturity and consequences in Milkman’s actions are more explicit. We see Hagar going mad and losing herself as Milkman gains his identity. It takes Milkman until the end of the book to realize what he has done, and that he cannot just “fly off and leave a body,” meaning you cannot just burn bridges when becoming a new person.
While Morrison is highlighting how women hurt from their abandonment by men, she does not insinuate that they need to be victimized.

Rather, she discusses the thought that women are too dependent on men. One can argue that Ryna’s and Hagar’s reactions to their partners abandoning them are too extreme. When Hagar dies, Pilate exclaims “she was loved,” expressing that Hagar’s depression revolving around Milkman was needless, since she had a whole support system in Pilate and Reba. Another example of this is Macon’s abandonment of Ruth and Ruth’s dependency. Ruth, throughout the novel, is dependent on men for love. She forms a too intimate relationship with her father, but eventually he dies and she is left without his love. She does have a husband, but he denies physical affection and emotional support to her, and she becomes desperate without those presences. When she has her child, Milkman, she has almost a possessive relationship with him, not wanting him to leave her because she is afraid of losing another man, though Milkman does not really love his mother, much like he does not really love Hagar due to his blindness to other people’s emotions and wants. Morrison writes Ruth as obsessed with having a mutual sense of affection with a man after they emotionally abandon her, even though it is not really a necessity for her. Pilate helps clarify this, exclaiming that Ruth treats Milkman like a “house,” and says that if he does not have him, then that is

that.
Pilate herself is an example of Morrison’s exploration in Song of Solomon of women depending on men and crumbling when they abandon them, in the sense that she does not do either of those things. The absence of Pilate’s navel caused a man as well as an entire community to abandon her, but she did not let herself suffer. Instead, she found an identity for herself that did not depend solely on other people. And with finding that identity, she did not have to leave people behind either. Morrison describes this with Pilate’s geography book, symbolically stating that she did not have to leave everything behind without learning about herself, as men in the novel have.
Morrison discusses the abandonment in women in Song of Solomon. Men in the book do not understand that their actions have consequences, and while flying away and discovering themselves is important, they hurt the women who care for them in the process by thinking they have to leave everything behind. As well, Morrison discusses the dependency women can have on men in that devoting themselves entirely can be emotionally draining, especially when the men leave them.