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Literary analysis on the color purple
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Can someone truly die of a broken heart? While that may be one of the questions Song of Solomon leaves you with, it certainly isn’t the only one. Throughout the book we see characters go through significant challenges and subsequent changes. There’s also a mystical element that can be felt throughout the book that always has us question whether things are truly happening or not. One of the aspects of the book that is particularly fascinating is the idea of love and how it’s shown by each character. Throughout Song of Solomon we see the characters in the book exhibit all kinds of levels of love, with someone like Macon seemingly showing none to Pilate showing quite a lot. One of the most interesting relationships portrayed in the book is Milkman …show more content…
and Hagar’s, especially when you look at the change that Hagar undergoes throughout the book.. Hagar’s actions after breakup and up until the end of the book are particularly interesting. She goes from loving Milkman, to wanting to kill him and then thinking she has figured out the reason for Milkman constantly rejecting her. Song of Solomon uses Hagar’s outrageous shopping spree to draw attention to the issue of unrequited love and suggests that materialistic views on life leave us ultimately unfulfilled and loveless. Throughout the book we get a sense of Hagar’s materialism. Her struggle with trying to win over Milkman is pretty much doomed from the beginning. Milkman only ever really sees her as an expendable lover, not one that he could ever really stay with long term. Hagar doesn’t seem to necessarily catch on to this. Her actions start to get really erratic towards the end of the book, like when she gets out of bed and speaks to her family after not speaking for days, “Look at how I look. I look awful. No wonder he didn’t want me. I look terrible.” Her voice was calm and reasonable, as though the last few days hadn’t been lived through at all. “I need to get up from here and fix myself up. No wonder!” (Morrison 308) At this point in the book Milkman has basically broken up with Hagar is starting to think that the reason he did is because she doesn’t look good. She never truly understands that Milkman doesn’t really want her, but she continues to believe that things will go back to normal. The actions of the last few days don’t matter to her anymore, she just feels she needs to look better than ever. I think this quote shows how somewhat detached Hagar is from reality at this point. The next quote gives a good indication of how Pilate and Reba feel about Hagar. The way they spoil her most likely played a part in Hagar becoming the person she was by the end. They obviously love her very much and are completely willing to give in to her needs, even if they seem to not make much sense as seen in this quote, “They look at each other. “What you need?” asked Pilate. “I need everything,” she said, and everything is what she got. She shopped for everything a woman could wear from the skin out, with the money from Reba’s diamond” (Morrison 310). You can really tell how much Hagar really cares about winning over Milkman, but she goes about it the wrong way. Throughout the book the two never really sit down and talk about their actions. But Pilate and Reba also allow Hagar to do this, I’m sure because they love her too much to really tell her how it is. But it really isn’t that surprising that Hagar would resort to this behavior, as she has acted strange throughout the book. But this particular quote shows that she is quite selfish as well. She uses the money from Reba’s diamond to buy her new clothes and accessories, when not of it will matter in the end. But Reba and Pilate stick with her till the end, with Pilate seeming to be the voice of reason as usual. Towards the end of the book Hagar makes one final attempt to get herself together to go perhaps win back Milkman. Hagar has just come home from shopping like crazy and basically making herself over, when it starts to rain as she walks home. Her appearance isn’t exactly what she had hoped for in Morrison’s narration, “At last she opened the door and presented herself to Pilate and Reba. And it was in their eyes that she saw what she had not seen before in the mirror: the wet ripped hose, the soiled white dress, the sticky, lumpy face powder, the streaked rouge, and the wild wet shoals of hair” (Morrison 314). Hagar’s shopping bags had been falling apart and she was soaking wet from walking home in the rain, yet she is completely oblivious to the fact that she her makeover has been completely ruined. She’s so focused on looking good and finding Milkman that she can’t handle it when she finally comes back home to Reba and Pilate. The way Toni Morrison describes Hagar’s appearance is very interesting and makes it seem even sadder, especially when she writes what the other people witnessing Hagar’s shopping spree and saying about her. Hagar thinks that going out and buying new clothes will make Milkman notice her, when he most likely wouldn’t notice her no matter how much she tried. She is constantly trying to get Milkman’s attention, only to be left disappointed. You can’t help but feel bad for Hagar, considering all that she went through to get Milkman to love her only to die in the end.
She obviously wasn’t acting like a normal person when she tried to kill Milkman, but I think by the end you get a better feel for why Hagar acts the way she does. Her behavior doesn’t always seem to be entirely her fault, as Pilate and Reba somewhat enable her when it comes to being spoiled. I find it interesting that Morrison decided to kill Hagar off, but keep the reason for her death slightly ambiguous. We’re probably supposed to assume she died of a broken heart, as her death seems to happen in a fairly short amount of time. But I think this always has to do with the mythical aspect of the book, as the way Hagar handles herself is fair from realistic at times. But her materialistic way of thinking that new clothes and a different hair style will help her out in any way is somewhat more realistic. There’s people in real life with this kind of view and just like Hagar they wind up with nothing. Hagar’s shopping spree and death in the end of the book just goes to show how completely out of touch she is with how Milkman really feels about her and how she chooses to make herself happy. Putting more meaning into relationships and your own self-worth will always be much more significant that trying to treasure material
objects.
Guitar Bains is one of the pivotal characters in Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. As he ages throughout the novel, his character traits evolve--sometimes in unexpected ways. He begins as a watchful and passionate boy who understands the world around him better than most. However, as he ages, he finds that he seems to be among the minority of people who care about the social plight of African Americans. Throughout the book, he grows more and more radical, until his passion escalates to the point that he starts killing innocent people in order to keep the status quo. Despite a promising start, Guitar’s moral journey leads him to a fate as a misguided but well-meaning and self-justified killer.
In Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison gives us a list of characters whose lives all revolve around the basic principle that completes us all, love. Morrison's most grounded character is Pilate Dead. Although Pilate may not say much, she is one of the most important and beloved characters in the story. She is loved not only by Milkman but also by the readers. As Morrison says “[Pilate is very large] because she is like something we wish existed. She represents some hope in all of us,” (“An Interview with Toni Morrison” 419). Pilate Dead is many things to many different people. She is a mother, a savior, a role model, a woman of great strength, and a woman filled with mystery.
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.
Pilate Dead is a major character who stands out from the other characters in Song of Solomon. Pilate Dead does not represent the stereotypical weak, dependent woman that the novel depicts through the female characters that are in the story. The women in Song of Solomon were seen as subordinate to their significant other and lacking the strength to live on their own. However, Pilate demonstrates a strong, dependent women who is capable of surviving on her own without showing any inferiority to men. Her strength and independence is shown through her lifestyle, her relationship with other characters, and her death.
Typically minority groups are thought of in the context of race; however, a minority group can also consist of gender and class. The struggles facing a minority group complicate further when these different facets of minority categories are combined into what is sometimes called a double minority. Throughout their writing, African American women have exposed how being a double minority changes the conditions of being a minority. In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the African American female characters demonstrate the impact of having a double minority status.
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.
The birthplace of Aesop’s Fables originated in ancient Greece and is widely speculated to have been written by a slave named Aesop. Many critics over time have questioned the true original author of this book, however, they seem to agree that Greece is the actual geographical location of its birth. The specific version of Aesop’s Fables discussed in this essay started with a man named George Fyler Townsend, who began the process of recreating the book by translating it into English and publishing it in 1870. Townsend’s Aesop’s Fables represents a collection of translated stories that highlight morals above anything else, and these morals reflect the values that Townsend considered to be the most important to transmit from Aesop’s original version in Greek to the English-speaking people of his time.
Song of Solomon tells the story of Dead's unwitting search for identity. Milkman appears to be destined for a life of self-alienation and isolation because of his commitment to the materialism and the linear conception of time that are part of the legacy he receives from his father, Macon Dead. However, during a trip to his ancestral home, “Milkman comes to understand his place in a cultural and familial community and to appreciate the value of conceiving of time as a cyclical process”(Smith 58).
Of the various manifestations of voice that participate in the interplay of voices in Song of Solomon, I would like to name three - the narrative voice, the signifying voice, and the responsive voice - each of which is dialogized within itself and in relation to the others.
When comparing Helen of (Sparta) Troy and Marilyn Monroe they have many parallels and differences. Mutually both of these women had a coarse childhood with many hardships. Both women had a turning point when they did something that caused people to change their opinion of them. Helen and Monroe’s Beauty has luminously inspired artist for decades. When comparing Helen of troy and Marilyn Monroe, one can see many similarities between both historic individuals.
What is a Hero? In the Novel Mythology by Edith Hamilton it speaks of many Greek Gods and Goddesses, you get a clear outlook on many of the characters in the novel. Many of these gods fit some criteria on what a hero is. An Epic Hero is a character who is brave and takes risks to accomplish tasks not only for themselves but for the goodness of others. A Hero is someone who doesn't only do things to benefit themselves but benefits the people around them and goes on quests to establish their greatness. Who is also glorified by their community. In the Novel two characters by the name Theseus and Perseus meet many of these characteristics. Perseus is very brave and goes on a quest to capture an item that is very dangerous
Experience is the hidden inspiration in all of literature. Every letter, word, and sentence formed, every plot imagined, and every conflict conceived has a trace amount of its creator’s past ingrained within it. But most of all, authors reflect themselves in the characters they create. The protagonist of any story embodies certain traits and qualities of his or her creator; the virtues and vices, ambitions and failures, strengths and weaknesses of an author are integral parts of their characters lives. When authors’ experiences differ, so do their characters, as seen with Welty and King. Both authors had distinct upbringings, each with their own forms of hardship. The contrasting nature of these authors’ struggles is why their characters are the antithetical. As a result of these
A characteristic not many people have is courage. Courage can be difficult to obtain or it can be easy. Acting upon fearful choices makes a person courageous. Courageous figures are the 2000 Stripling Warriors. These young men were morally straight, courageous, faithful, and brave. Anybody can be courageous through actions and morals. One of the most important attributes is courage.
In works of literature and television, most artists have a tendency to employ a minor character that not only serves in the plot’s general progression, but also to create one or more memorable situations in the story that regains the observer’s attention. In John Steinbeck’s famous novella Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife is a minor character; she serves a purpose to the plot by creating a constant raucous amongst the ranch workers, but eventually leads to her spilling herself wide open about her utter misery within her nuptial arrangement to Curley, which is news to the reader. On Seth MacFarlene’s Family Guy, after a dramatic speech made by Brian to Chris and Peter, a character known as “greased-uped deaf guy” may run through the Griffin’s
Othello is one of the typical Shakespearean plays in that it deals with the tragic hero. Othello is convinced that his wife, Desdemona, is cheating on him with Cassio. Beginning with the aperture lines of the play, Othello remains at a distance from much of the action that concerns and affects him. Roderigo and Iago refer equivocally to a “he” or “him” for much of the first scene. When they commence to designate whom they are verbalizing about, especially once they stand beneath Brabanzio’s window, they do so with racial epithets, not designations. These include “the Moor” , “the thick-lips” , “an old ebony ram”, and “a Barbary horse” (Cite). Although Othello appears at the commencement of the second scene, we do not hear him called by his name until well into Act I, scene 3. Later, Othello’s will be the last of the three ships to arrive at Cyprus in Act II, scene 1; Othello will stand apart while Cassio and Iago suppositious discuss Desdemona in Act IV, scene 1; Othello will postulate that Cassio is dead without being present when the fight takes place in Act V, scene 1. Othello’s status as an outsider may be the reason he is such easy prey for Iago.