The tale of the flying African represents a common dream, a common disappointment, and a group identity. As the object of Milkman's quest, it suggests a multi-leveled equivalence between individual identity and community. Simply as a folktale, it is an artifact of Afro-American history; its content links Afro-American to pan-African history; it is localized to represent Milkman's family history. His discovery of the tale thus repre- sents Milkman's discovery of his membership in ever more inclusive communities: his family, Afro-Americans, all blacks. When Milkman realizes he can "fly" as a result of discovering his flying ancestor, his quest itself parallels Solomon's own flight back to Africa; it, too, represents a return to the origins Pilate represents the spirit of community inherent in the folk consciousness. She lives without electricity or stockings or table manners, but with "a deep concern for and about human relationships" (150). In her, vestiges of folk culture function in affirmation of kinship and community. Her communication with her father's ghost, for example, demonstrates her belief that human relationships have substance; her use of conjure in Milkman's conception has helped carry on the family; and her song, "Sugarman done fly away," becomes the clue to the family's history. Macon, on the other hand, represents the individualism of "progress." For Pilate, "progress was a word that meant walking a little farther on down the road" (271). He hates his wife, is ashamed of his sister, ignores his children, and teaches his son to "own things" so that he can "own [him-self] and other people too" (55). As he travels back from North to South, from his father's home to his great-grandfather's, Milkman progresses from his father's values to Pilate’s. He sets out seeking gold, his father's concern, but ends up seeking family, Pilate's concern. He begins by robbing Pilate, violating not only the principles of kinship and community but also the person who epitomizes them. He concludes by seeking reconciliation with Pilate and helping her carry out a sacrament of kinship by burying the bones of her father properly near his home. He begins thinking gold will free him from dependence on
In the first part of the novel, Milkman is his father's son, a child taught to ignore the wisdom of women. Even when he is 31, he still needs "both his father and his aunt to get him off" the scrapes he gets into. Milkman considers himself Macon, Jr., calling himself by that name, and believing that he cannot act independently (120). The first lesson his father teaches him is that ownership is everything, and that women's knowledge (specifically, Pilate's knowledge) is not useful "in this world" (55). He is blind to the Pilate's wisdom. When Pilate tell Reba's lover that women's love is to be respected, he learns nothing (94).
The movie 'Ethnic Notions' describes different ways in which African-Americans were presented during the 19th and 20th centuries. It traces and presents the evolution of the rooted stereotypes which have created prejudice towards African-Americans. This documentary movie is narrated to take the spectator back to the antebellum roots of African-American stereotypical names such as boy, girl, auntie, uncle, Sprinkling Sambo, Mammy Yams, the Salt and Pepper Shakers, etc. It does so by presenting us with multiple dehumanized characters and cartons portraying African-Americans as carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies. These representations of African-Americans roll across the screen in popular songs, children's rhymes, household artifacts and advertisements. These various ways to depict the African ?American society through countless decades rooted stereotypes in the American society. I think that many of these still prevail in the contemporary society, decades after the civil rights movement occurred.
Near the end of the book Milkman seems to change his view of his father, with some help from the positive memories of the old men in the passage.
In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, the relationships between whites and blacks are a main theme. Throughout the whole novel Morrison adds her own opinions toward the race problems that the characters of Not Doctor Street experience. Poverty is another big issue in the novel and many of the main characters struggle financially. Money becomes a means of escape for many of the characters, especially Milkman and Guitar. For both men their quests for gold leaves them empty handed, but their personalities changed. Milkman’s quest was to be independent, especially since he was still living with his parents. Milkman however, was not poor. His family was considered one of the most financially comfortable black families in town. He was the spoiled son and it was galling but easy to work for his father, easy to be waited on hand and foot by his mother and sisters, far easier than striking out on his own. So his idea of freedom was not really one of working to support himself, but simply having easy money given to him, and not having to give anything to anyone in return. It was his father Macon Jr. who informed Milkman of the possibility of Pilate having millions of dollars in gold wrapped in a green tarp that was suspended from her ceiling. The hidden gold was in Milkman’s opinion his only ticket out of Not Doctor Street, his way of having his own possessions, being free from his parents lending hand. For Guitar it was a way to escape and fund his Seven Days mission.
Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative provides insight into cultural assimilation and the difficulties such assimilation. The writer embraces several Western traits and ideals yet guards his African virtues jealously. In doing so however, he finds himself somewhere in between a full European and a displaced African. This problem of cultural identity Equiano struggled with is still present in modern American society. The modern day African-American appears to also be in the process of deciding the between two competing cultures and often being left somewhere in middle becoming a victim of cultural identity just like Olaudah Equiano some 250 years ago.
Narrative is a form of writing used by writers to convey their experiences to an audience. James Baldwin is a renowned author for bringing his experience to literature. He grew up Harlem in the 1940’s and 1950’s, a crucial point in history for America due to the escalading conflict between people of different races marked by the race riots of Harlem and Detroit. This environment that Baldwin grew up in inspires and influences him to write the narrative “Notes of a Native Son,” which is based on his experience with racism and the Jim-Crow Laws. The narrative is about his father and his influence on Baldwin’s life, which he analyzes and compares to his own experiences. When Baldwin comes into contact with the harshness of America, he realizes the problems and conflicts he runs into are the same his father faced, and that they will have the same affect on him as they did his father.
The character Pilate in Song of Solomon is portrayed in the role of a teacher or "guide". She tends to be a spiritual leader as well as a spiritual guide for Milkman and the rest of the society. It could be argued that she is the main cause of Milkman's liberation and better being. She represents the motherly love and gives the spiritual education that Milkman needs, in order to go through the monomyth process. She teaches Milkman the necessities of life not with severity but rather by means of being her own self. Her being connected to her heritage and traditions is also involved in changing Milkman into the hero. Pilate is not the typical teacher that a reader could expect to have in his or her classroom. Pilate is to a certain extent, very mother like and caring towards Milkman. She gives Milkman what he feels he can't get at his rich home, care and affection. When Milkman is alone, it is at Pilate's house that he finds comfort, not only from the people but also from the surroundings of the house. He feels comfortable being in a neighborhood of people that are of lower class than him. Pilate takes on the role of mother to Milkman by showing how a family is supposed to be, which is not divided like his house, but rather caring and loving towards one another, like the environment at Pilate's house. As Joseph Skerrett points out, Pilate does begin teaching Milkman, starting from their very first meeting. Her whole lesson with how the word "hi" sounds like the "dumbest" word and that if someone was to be greeted with a hi, they should "get up and knock you down" seems to get Milkman to notice her. Her role as a parental guide changes to that of one of the teacher and she tries to teach him what is right and wrong. She exemplifies to Milkman how life should be led. She shows him how goals in life should be aimed for and how they should be accomplished. For example, her whole lesson on how to make the perfect egg shows Milkman how even something as little as frying an egg has consequences to it.
When a party guest stereotypes Invisible Man and asks him to sing a “spiritual” he disrespects and de-legitimizes the artistry and cultural heritage of African-Americans. This points to a larger issue in the novel of how one utilizes one’s heritage for identity purposes and how the de-legitimizing of vernacular forms of expression through stereotyping can alienate one’s self from its own history and
The two concepts are perhaps the most powerful writing of the sheer burden of African-American in our society. Ever though the story was written many decades ago, many African-American today reflect on how things haven’t changed much over time. Still today American will conceptualize what is “Black” and what is “American”.
Freedom is heavily sought after and symbolized by flight with prominent themes of materialism, classism, and racism throughout Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon. The characters Milkman and Macon Dead represent these themes as Macon raises Milkman based on his own belief that ownership of people and wealth will give an individual freedom. Milkman grows up taking this idea as a way to personally obtain freedom while also coming to difficult terms with the racism and privilege that comes with these ideas and how they affect family and African Americans, and a way to use it as a search for an individual 's true self. Through the novel, Morrison shows that both set themselves in a state of mental imprisonment to these materials
Pilate was more like a mother to Milkman than an aunt. Milkman watched the only woman that he ever cared about die by the hand of his best and only friend. To Milkman there was now nothing else to live for. So by relinquishing his greed and his neuroticism Milkman gave up "all the shit" that weighed him down and, following the legacy of his great grandfather, jumped off of Solomon's Leap. In the end maybe Milkman actually did fly because, "if you surrender to the air, you can ride it."
During the long period of time in which Milkman doubts human flight, he is essentially shunned from his community. However, by accepting human flight as both a natural and possible occurrence, Milkman achieves acceptance. In actuality, flight as a means of escape is conveyed as a selfish act, harming all those left behind. Furthermore, in reference to Robert Smith and Milkman, death, not flight, was what caused them to essentially escape. In Song of Solomon, flight comes across as an act of desperation, in which those involved would risk anything to escape their troubled lives. Only when you “surrendered [yourself] to the air” could you truly escape and find freedom (Morrison 337).
Some of the most disturbing truths are told in silent whispers masked in the noise of living. You aren 't aware that you heard the message until long after it has seeped into you subconscious and taken root in your psyche. This is an art in storytelling, an art so few can recognize, and even fewer can replicate. Such beautiful craftsmanship is Katherine Mansfield 's story of “The Fly,” in which, behind the scenes, a dismal message of grief and guilt and the limits of the human mind are told through two dying men and one dying fly.
Ralph Ellison’s short story, Battle Royal, is mainly a description of the African American struggle for equality and identity. The narrator of the story is an above average youth of the African American community [Goldstein-Shirlet, 1999]. He is given an opportunity to give a speech to some of the more prestigious white individuals. His expectations of being received in a positive and normal environment are drastically dashed when he is faced with the severity of the process he must deal with in order to accomplish his task. The continuing theme of Battle Royal is that of a struggle for one’s rights against great odds. Instances of this struggle are found throughout the story. Ellison highlights the vastness of the problems faced by the African American community to claim themselves. This is done by the extreme nature of the incidents described in the Battle Royal. A short analysis of the major theme found in Ellison’s Battle Royal, supported by a literary criticism dealing with the tone and style of the story.
Key ideas in Richard Wright’s Bildungsroman Black Boy are developed as a result of strong motifs and vivid symbolic imagery. The passage incorporates a motif of hunger as a symbol and powerful imagery of literature to further Wright’s primary idea. Wright emphasizes the abstract values of literature to Richard the protagonist through imagery and symbolism.