In the novel, Song of Solomon, the author Toni Morrison illustrates the journey of self-discovery as seen through the eyes of one of the main characters, Milkman Dead. While the road to self-discovery was a long and windy one, in the end, Milkman comes to find himself as he gains knowledge of this own personal history as well as the essence of who he truly is as a person and a man. At the beginning of the novel Milkman seems to portray the typical example of an immature young man who has not come to the full realization of who he is, “Milkman had stretched his carefree boyhood out for thirty-one years” (98). Milkman’s parents Ruth and Macon Dead are both very influential in regards to who Milkman is at the very start of the novel. His mother …show more content…
nursed Milkman until he was six years old, which attributed to his nickname Milkman. Her husband sexually repressed her for about two decades and in her mind justified nursing Milkman for too long because she believed that, “Something else is needed to get from sunup to sundown: a balm, a gentle touch or nuzzling of some sort” (13). Her desire for sexual intimacy began to stunt Milkman's natural growth and maturity from a very young age. Milkman's father, Macon also impacted his son in detrimental ways. Milkman seems to pride himself on being nothing like his father when in reality he shares his father's materialistic values and his sexist views concerning women. This causing Milkman to have no real empathy for anyone who he deems lesser than himself. This can be seen in how he views his mother, “She was too insubstantial, too shadowy for love” (75). It is only when Milkman leaves his home and distances himself from his influential parents that he can begin to establish his sense of self and begin to leave the arrogant little boy he once was behind. Milkman embarks on his journey of self-discovery when he comes in contact with his aunt Pilate, even after this father had forbidden him from having contact with her, “Now, I mean for you to stay out of that wine house and as far away from Pilate as you can” (55).
Macon and his sister were very close during their younger years, but since then had a falling out causing them not to speak for quite a long time and when Milkman asks what Pilates part in the falling out was Macon responds by saying, “ It ain’t what she did; it’s what she is.” “ What is she?” “A snake” (54). Abandoning his father's commands to stay away Milkman takes his life into his hands and goes to Pilate's house with his friend Guitar to meet, “[...] the woman who had so much to do with his future as she had his past” (36). During their encounter, Milkman is confused as to why his father would forbid him from seeing his Aunt who sees harmless to him, and therefore begins to question his father’s actions and starts to think for himself. During his visits with Pilate, he also learns stories about his father's past that are strangely new to him. These new realizations can be viewed as the beginning of a want to know more about himself as well as his past. However, the real journey commences when his father sends him out to find the gold him and Pilate stumbled upon as children. After one failed attempt to retrieve the gold from Pilates home he is sent on a quest to the where the gold was originally found, and …show more content…
along the way he encounters parts of his ancestral roots, along with the origin of his name and his place with his people. Milkman’s quest brings him to the Danville and Shalimar where he is greeted by a community of people who welcome him with open arms, and are very familiar with his family both present and past. After he steps off the Greyhound bus in Danville he meets Reverend Cooper and his wife who welcome Milkman into their home with great enthusiasm, “ “Ester, come here!” Then to Milkman: “I know your people!” (229). As they being to have a conversation Reverend Cooper beings to tell Milkman more about his father as well as his ancestors, and what part they played in the community in Danville, “Your daddy, was four or five years older than me, and they didn't get to town much, but everyone round here remembers the old man.
Old Macon Dead, your grandad. My daddy and him was good friends” (229). He also becomes familiar with the Butlers, who are responsible for the murder of Milkman's grandfather, and beings to question whether they were caught or if someone did anything about it. Reverend Cooper tells him that the Butlers were never really prosecuted, but instead stayed in the town like nothing ever happened even though everyone knew they were guilty. Milkman is drawn in by these stories of his past and beings to start to put together the missing pieces of his identity. Milkman also learns about a woman named Circe who lived with the Butlers and also helped Macon and Pilate when they were on the run as young children. When Milkman continues his journey to the house where Macon and Pilate were kept hidden in hopes to find the gold he stumbles upon Circe. While in the house he is drawn to Circe with great force, “so when he saw the woman at the top of the stairs there was no way for him to resist climbing up toward her outreached hands, her fingers spread wide for him, her mouth gaping open for him, her eyes devouring him” (239). During this encounter with Circe Milkman learns more information about his grandmother and who she was, “Reverend Cooper said she looked white. My grandmother. Was she?” “No. Mixed. Indian mostly” (243). Throughout his journey to
find the gold Milkman ends up finding something much more valuable. He discovers more about his parents past, and in return discovers more about himself and who is as a person. As Milkman takes all the new information he learned about his parents and past his views and his sense of self-begin to change because of his new perspective is much wider than what he had before his journey. He is finally able to leave his selfish attitude behind and truly begins to love and care for another person. Following his hunting trip, Milkman's stays with a woman named Sweet. Sweet takes care of Milkman and tends to the injuries he has acquired during his travels. Through this relationship, Morrison shows the ways that Milkman has changed, and how now is capable of completely loving and caring for another person. Milkman even returned the favor of giving her a bath on his own accord, “ “Then let me give you a cool one,” He soaped and rubbed her until her skin squeaked and glistened like onyx” (285). Milkman also has a final moment of realization of who he was in the past, “Apparently he thought he deserved only to be loved--from a distance, though--and given what he wanted. And in return he would be...what? Pleasant? Generous? Maybe all he was really saying was: I am not responsible for your pain; share your happiness with me but not your unhappiness” (277). Milkman has finally found himself when he fully realizes who his views in the past were wrong and then turn from them and change for the better. Throughout a journey that started off focused on selfishness, reasons turned into a journey of self-discovery for Milkman Dead. With learning more information about his past from Pilate, Circe, and Reverend Cooper that is parents had kept hidden from him he is finally able to realize who he is as a person. With a wider perspective of his past and where he came from he can finally understand who he is and gain the missing pieces of information he desperately needed. Throughout the novel, Milkman grows from a selfish young man into a selfless man you can care for other people besides just himself.
Macon, perhaps instigated by never having a mother and seeing his own father killed, has always appeared to be a cold and unforgiving parent even to his other children besides Milkman, but since Macon heard that his son¹s nickname was ³Milkman² he has seen him as a symbol of his disgust for his wife and lost a lot of respect for his son and became even colder towards him. The only time Macon did spend time with Milkman, he spent it boasting about his own great upbringing, warning him to stay away from Pilate and telling him about the embarrassing actions of Ruth. This is the manner in which Morrison establishes the relationship between Macon and Milkman in the first part of the book.
Milkman thought the bag that Pilate had was filled with the dead white mans gold, but when he reaches Pennsylvania he realizes that he is wrong. He found out the truth when he meets ancient Circe. Ancient Circe is a woman he meets and she represents a person who is linked to Milkman’s past. She was living through the Civil War and mid-wifed Macon and Pilates birth. Circe knew his ancestors and she told Milkman that the bones in the bag were her father’s bones. All this is too much for Milkman to believe without actual proof, so he travels to Virginia in hope to find the whole truth.
Guitar Bains, Milkman's best friend since childhood, serves as Milkman's only outlet to life outside his secluded and reserved family. Guitar introduces Milkman to Pilate, Reba, and Hagar, as well as to normal townspeople such as those that meet in the barber shop, and the weekend party-goers Milkman and Guitar fraternize with regularly. However, despite their close friendship, the opportunity to gain a large amount of gold severs all their friendly ties. Guitar, suspecting Milkman took all the gold for himself, allows his greed and anger to dictate his actions and sets out on a manhunt, ready to take Milkman down wherever and whenever he could in order to retrieve the hoarded riches. Guitar's first few sniper attempts to execute Milkman did fail; however, the ending of the novel leaves the reader with the imminent death of either Milkman or Guitar. Ironic that t...
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.
In fact, community is not only the end of his quest but the means; Milkman makes progress only as he acknowledges community. In the characterization of Milkman's father, Macon, and his father's sister, Pilate, the novel sets up a distinct conflict between individualistic and community values. 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."
As a result of his spoiled childhood Milkman takes women for granted. He doesn't consider how his actions affect them. This is shown when he realizes he is bored with his cousin Hagar, whom he has been using for his sexual pleasure for years. Instead of buying her a Christmas gift he gives her cash and a thank you note. He thanks her for everything she has done for him and considers the relationship over. Hagar becomes obsessed with killing Milkman. She makes several attempts to take his life but fails because of her love for him. Her last attempt to kill him is when he is hiding from her in his only friend, Guitar?s room. Hagar tries to stab him but after she sees his face she cannot. Milkman tells her to stab herself and says, ?Why don?t you do that? Then all your problems will be over.?[pg 130] This portrays how Milkman is cold hearted towards the opposite sex.
Toni Morrison's novel “Song of Solomon" is an evident example of literary work that utilizes the plight of the African-American community to develop an in-depth and complex storyline and plot. Not only does Toni Morrison use specific historical figures as references for her own characters, she also makes use of biblical figures, and mythological Greek gods and goddesses. When evaluating Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon” you can relate each and every character to a specific historical figure or mythological being in history. But to focus on a specific character you would look towards one of the protagonists. Guitar and Milkman can serve as main individuals that can be symbolic of other political and civil rights activist involved in history.
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.
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).
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
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.
Morrison sets the stage with many explanations for Milkman's unlikable qualities. Milkman's father, Macon Dead Jr., is an aristocratic black businessman. Macon Dead prides himself on his money and his land, believing that it is his wealth that earns him respect and power. Macon Dead is a cold and unfeeling person, having no regard or respect for women or the poor black folk that live in the town that he owns a large part of. Because Macon has no respect for the poor black people of the town he and his family naturally are disconnected from the ongoing racial issues affecting the black society. Where the Dead's live they are more white than they are black.
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).
In part two, Milkman goes south to his father's hometown. He is looking for a fortune that his father and aunt had found long before. When he does not find the fortune he begins trying to find where it went. This takes him to where his great grandfather and mother originated. Milkman eventually is led to the town where he is a direct descendant of the town's legend, Solomon. It is in this town that Milkman finds himself and becomes his own m...
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.