ames are one of the first identifiers a person is given, and yet as infants they are given no choice in this identifier that will be with them for the rest of their lives. In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon the use of the biblical names Hagar and Pilate serve as a means to show the importance of defining the path of one’s life for one's self, as supposed to letting one's name define it for them. Through juxtaposition and parallels, Morrison teaches a universal lesson of the importance of self definition.
One of the first things said about Pilate after she is born is a comment by the midwife, who said on the topic of her name “Christ-killing Pilate. You can’t get much worse than that for a name.”(19). The association of Pilate Dead with Pontius
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Hagar was the Egyptian slave of Sarai(Sarah), who was given to Sarai’s husband Abram(Abraham) in order for him to have children. Once Hagar had served her purpose she and her son were cast out of the community and left to fend for themselves in the desert with only a little food and water provided by Abram so he would not feel bad about banishing them. Hagar Dead was used in a similar fashion by Milkman, and then promptly thrown out once Milkman grew tired of her. Also, similar to Abram’s gift of food and water before casting them out, Milkman gave Hagar Dead the gift of a thank you note, “Thank you for all you have meant to me” (99) it said, so Milkman wouldn't feel bad about ending their relationship. The rest of biblical Hagar’s narrative mirrors that of Hagar Dead’s as well. Stranded in the desert, the biblical Hagar and her son began to die of hunger and thirst, but when God heard their cries he opened up their eyes to a well they hadn't noticed before and they both were saved. After Milkman left Hagar Dead, she began to starve. Not in a literal sense, but in the sense that she needed love. Hagar Dead’s sustenance is love, which she shows the reader in the beginning of the novel by saying“some of my days were hungry ones”(48) which Pilate clarifies with “...She don't mean food”(49). Without Milkman’s love to sustain her, of course she began to …show more content…
This was done as a means to explore the theme of danger of letting names creating a path for one's life as supposed to creating it for oneself. In the differences in outcomes, one can see how creating one's own path is important. Pilate Dead did everything she possibly could to be different than Pontius Pilate, and in the end she was rewarded. The bag of bones she carried with her all through her life out of guilt ended up being those of her father, and thus Pilate Dead was able to fulfil her goal of letting her father rest. In making her own path, Pilate was able to create her own ending as well. Hagar Dead, on the other hand, followed the path of the biblical Hagar and made no effort to get off of it. In the end this led to her downfall, because whereas biblical Hagar had God to save her, Hagar dead did not. In allowing the path of her life to be determined by her name, Hagar Dead sealed her fate to follow the story of her namesake. The importance of being able to separate oneself from one's name may be of a magnitude that is not normally seen in real life, but the lesson remains. Create a path for oneself and you can make then end a good
In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the character of Milkman gradually learns to respect and to listen to women. This essay will examine Milkman's transformation from boy to man.
The book called Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, deals with many real life issues, most of which are illustrated by the relationships between different family members.
Throughout literature it has been common for authors to use allusions to complement recurrent motifs in their work. In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon, Milkman learns that his desire to fly has been passed down to him from his ancestor Solomon. As Milkman is figuring out the puzzle of his ancestry, he realizes that when Solomon tried to take his youngest son, Jake, flying with him, he dropped him and Jake never arrived with his father to their destination.
McKay, Nellie, editor, Critical Essays on Toni Morrison, G.K. Hall, 1988. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Penguin Books, 1987. Rigney, Barbara.
Lubiano, Wahneema. "The Postmodernist Rag: Political Identity and the Vernacular in Song of Solomon," in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon," in New Essays on Song of Solomon, ed. Valerie Smith, Cambridge University Press 1995, 93-116, 111-113:
Toni Morrision's novel "Song of Solomon" contrasts the image of a self-made individual with that of an individual who is the product of his or her society. Since society changes, the man who simply reflects his social environment changes accordingly. But “the true individual's self-discovery depends on achieving consciousness of one's own nature and identity”(Middleton 81). This is what differentiates Pilate and Milkman from Macon and Guitar. There are direct similarities between Milkman's and Pilate's self-discovery. They both achieve their individualistic spirit through travel, literal and symbolic. Not so for Guitar and Macon Dead jr. “Where Pilate's and Milkman's self-discovery is a journey of individuals, Guitar and Macon Dead Jr.are defined and determined by the kind of society they belong to”(Davis 225).
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.
Once upon a time, castles watched the seas and pigs could fly. Often, when we are young fairy tales are read to us to offer happy endings in a world of darkness. They give us one specific ending and put our minds at rest knowing that Belle found her Beast. In Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, Milkman Dead is not afforded the luxury of his journey having one specific pathway of going through life. Milkman’s story can be seen as a fairy tale with elements of good and bad. His world is trapped in a bubble, and it is not until the fairy tales of other people and books end that he becomes his own fairytale. He finds himself through the twists and turns of his own story. Because of the magical elements within Milkman’s life,
In Song of Solomon, through many different types of love, Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's romantic love, and Guitar's love for his race, Toni Morrison demonstrates not only the readiness with which love will turn into a devastating and destructive force, but also the immediacy with which it will do so. Morrison tackles the amorphous and resilient human emotion of love not to glorify the joyous feelings it can effect but to warn readers of love's volatile nature. Simultaneously, however, she gives the reader a clear sense of what love is not. Morrison explicitly states that true love is not destructive. In essence, she illustrates that if "love" is destructive, it is most likely, a mutation of love, something impure, because love is all that is pure and true.
When one is confronted with a problem, we find a solution easily, but when a society is confronted with a problem, the solution tends to prolong itself. One major issue that is often discussed in today’s society that has been here for as long as we’ve known it, is racism. Racism is also a very repetitive theme in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. Almost every character has experienced racism whether it be towards them or they are the ones giving the racism in this novel. Racism is a very controversial topic as many have different perspectives of it. In Toni’s novel, three characters that have very distinct perspectives on racism are Macon Dead, Guitar, and Dr. Foster. These characters play vital roles throughout the novel.
In the book Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, a character's name says a lot about the character themselves. Pilate is one of the more interesting name choices throughout this book because her name does not represent her in any literal sense. The most famous reference to this name is Pontius Pilate from the bible, the man who condemned jesus to death. If approached from this direction this significance has no connection to what she is actually like in the book. The real significance of Pilate’s name is not in the name itself but in the way the name was chosen. Her illiterate father pointed at a grouping of letters he thought looked well together and gave the letters to her as a name. Even when her father chose her name the nurse helping with
The function of the mock-death is powerful because it forces Pericles and Alonso not only to acknowledge their actions, but also to cope with the loss their child, which is a punishment in itself. Pericles’ claim that “death remembered should be like a mirror” (Per. 1.1.46), which, essentially, indicates that an individual, who mourns the death of a loved one, should mirror death in their own actions, is of immense significance because it foreshadows the responses of Pericles and Alonso to the death of Marina and Ferdinand, respectively. While Pericles tries to remove the ‘taint’ of Antiochus’ sin with penitential-like acts of charity, bringing “corn to make [Cleon’s] needy bread / And give them life” (1.4.95-96) in Tarsus, he is unable to remove the forbidden knowledge of incest from his mind. Consequently, Pericles’ discovery of Marina’s death is significant because it is knowledge that makes him undergo a symbolical transformation: he mirrors his daughter’s fate in his own appearance and behaviour. As Pericles’ “main grief springs from the loss / of a belovèd daughter and a wife” (5.1.27-28), it transforms him into a personification of death itself because he “swears / Never to wash his face nor cut his hairs / [he] puts on a sackcloth” (4.4.27-29) and has “not spoken / To anyone, nor taken sustenance” (5.1.22-23) in
In Song of Solomon Toni Morrison tells a story of one black man's journey toward an understanding of his own identity and his African American roots. This black man, Macon "Milkman" Dead III, transforms throughout the novel from a naïve, egocentric, young man to a self-assured adult with an understanding of the importance of morals and family values. Milkman is born into the burdens of the materialistic values of his father and the weight of a racist society. Over the course of his journey into his family's past he discovers his family's values and ancestry, rids himself of the weight of his father's expectations and society's limitations, and literally learns to fly.
Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon tells the life story of Milkman and his family. The novel is well written and complex, while talking about several complex issues such as race, gender, and class. Although the novel makes reference to the several issues, the novel primarily focuses on what people’s desires are and their identities. Specifically through the difference between Macon Jr. and Pilate, Morrison illustrates that our most authentic desires come not from material items, but from our wish to connect with others.
In these sections some authors were fair in their conclusions and other authors were a little more harsh and biased toward a certain character or two. Through reading these commentaries I’ve learned that each person has their own view on Hagar, and more importantly, the way the text is written depicts how the character will be portrayed. The way a woman is portrayed in the bible is dependent upon the author and their bias. Hagar may be the selfish one in this situation, but she could also be the victim of Abraham and Sarah’s impatience with God. It just depends on how you read