Symbolism In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

Toni Morrison, in her novel Song of Solomon, skillfully utilizes symbolism to provide crucial insight into the story and to help add detail and depth to themes and character developments. Fabricating a 1960’s African American society, Morrison employs these symbols to add unspoken insight into the community that one would feel if he or she were actually living there, as well as to help the reader identify and sympathize with the characters and their struggles. By manifesting these abstract concepts into tangible objects such as gold or roses, the author is able to add a certain significance to important ideas that remains and develops further throughout the story, adding meaning to the work as a whole. Pilate’s brass box earring, containing

a small piece of paper with her name written on it, is a recurring symbol throughout the novel that both develops Pilate’s character and contributes to major themes such as identity and family.
Pilate’s earring is a physical representation of her connection to her identity.

In the African American community, names held a certain importance, and both people and places were given more descriptive nicknames that created a more accurate identity for them that their original names lacked. However, Pilate was already born with a name that encompassed her identity: Pilate, a homonym for “pilot” because she is a guiding figure, especially for Milkman. Keeping her name close to her in her earring, she is always in touch with her identity and lets it define her. Milkman, recognizing this and the impermanence of identity, comments how “names...had meaning. No wonder Pilate put hers in her ear. When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you do” (329). Despite this, Pilate’s name and influence will live on after her death, symbolized by her earring being snatched up by a bird that flies away with it: although her body remains on the ground, her name remains and moves

on.
Family and heritage, both important themes in the novel and important concepts to Pilate, are also symbolized by Pilate’s earring. After her father’s death, she debated between a blue sunbonnet and a brass snuffbox of her mother’s in which to put piece of paper with her name written on it by her father, and chose the snuffbox, which symbolized not only her hardened personality but also her connection to her family and heritage; hanging this contraption from her ear as an earring, she lives the rest of her life defined by both her name always physically being a part of her and a memento from each of her parents always by her side, symbolizing her strong connection to her family and her heritage. Her strong-spirited devotion to family is again reflected through her earring following Hagar’s death: passionately mourning the death of her granddaughter in the church, she sings for Hagar and, while doing so, “she tilted her head and looked down. Her earring grazed her shoulder. Out of the total blackness of her clothes it blazed like a star” (317). She is empty like her black clothes, but her earring burns bright, symbolizing that Hagar lives on in the earring due to its strong connection to family.
Morrison revisits Pilate’s earring at the end of the novel to emphasize her true character as a free soul.

Burying her father’s bones on Solomon’s Leap, Pilate rips her earring out of her ear and lays it atop the fresh grave as a headstone, signaling that she has done all she needs to do in life and allowing “the single word that Jake ever wrote” (335) to rest with his body. Having made the earring following her father’s death, Pilate now removes it when her father is properly laid to rest, fulfilling his final wish of a proper burial after his ghost told her years ago that “you just can’t leave a body” (147); this indicates that she has fulfilled her purpose and freed her soul, and shows her strong connection to her father and ultimately to family. At this point, Pilate becomes ready to die, since she voiced her opinions on death to Ruth when she explained how “some folks want to live forever. Some don’t. I believe they decide on it anyway. People die when they want to and if they want to” (140); having buried her father and removed her earring, thus separating from her identity, she has prepared herself for death. When she is shot by Guitar almost immediately, she dies peacefully and freely. Morrison symbolizes this liberating death by having a bird fly away with Pilate’s earring in its mouth, reminding the reader of the theme that flight is liberating, and that her soul is free and is “flying away” to heaven. Similarly, it symbolizes to Pilate’s devotion to her heritage,

as she in a sense follows her grandfather’s path and flies away, which she had always paid tribute to by singing her version of Shalimar’s children’s play song: “Sugarman [Solomon] done fly away” (6). The bird flying away with the earring also symbolizes Pilate’s individuality in life and her refusal to live by any rules other than her own, which Milkman notes by recognizing that “without her ever leaving the ground, she could fly” (336). In a sense, Pilate’s entire life is symbolized by her earring.
Song of Solomon is significant in its portrayal of the struggles and culture of the American black community. The novel provides a captivating glimpse into one of the most diverse yet oppressed communities in America, which Morrison enhances with an involved, well-written plot that keeps the reader enthralled. Morrison, through her use of symbolism and complex themes, explores the racism, sexism, and ignorance surrounding African American society during this period, but also highlights the culture and heritage it bred. Despite her novel being specific to an era, Morrison adeptly combines these elements to craft a timeless story for generations to come.