Symbolism In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

Throughout the first chapter of Song of Solomon, readers are introduced to one of the main characters, Macon Dead, and the environment in which he lives in. Concentrating on the personal problems of Macon rather than detailing the world around him, author Toni Morrison shares readers a glimpse of the society and the racial segregation that inhabits the world around Macon during the first few pages of her novel when chronicling the history of the local hospital’s home. In the description of the street in which the hospital stands, Morrison reveals a conflict between the caucasian and african american populations on “Not Doctor Street, a name the post office did not recognize.” While african americans had gifted the institution’s road the title

“Not Doctor Street,” individuals with “proper” authority, caucasian americans, fought for the official label “Mains Avenue,” building a struggle between the two contrasting races. Since the name that african americans had designed for the street was not official, many of the letters from across the nation that were targeted towards occupants of the originally dubbed “Doctor Street” were “passed...on to the Dead Letter Office” by the post office workers, leaving them in the drawer of others envelopes that will never be read. Instead of recognizing the street name and delivering them to the appropriate locations, these workers ignore the location listed on the paper and allow the letters to grow old and forgotten. Even after many african americans should have won honor and respect during their time fighting in the war, when “the name acquired a quasi-official status” as “a few [soldiers] gave their address at the recruitment office,” this still did not end this struggle between the two groups as the name was still “never used in any official capacity.” In response to these actions performed by these mailmen and other persons who had supported the original name of Mains Avenue, the street was given the banner “Not Doctor Street.”
Although it was not as both parties had originally planned, it “gave...residents a way to keep their memories alive and please the city legislators as well.” It allowed african americans to remember what had once been there, what was once truly theirs, and provide caucasian americans the feeling of superiority as, while not what they previously wanted, the name still punched a hole in the other team’s spirit, creating a stronger weakness for them to manipulate. At the end, they both lost this competition, but it did birth a greater problem between them. The caucasian americans took the power and used it to take away something that had become to others a tradition of the town. The african americans won the weakness to fight back, reforming to the words of the others. The caucasian americans were above and the african americans were below.
This victory for the caucasian americans transformed not only the street, but also the hospital that inhabited it.

Now under the title of “No Mercy Hospital,” fitting for the outcome of the original conflict, this institution left isolated itself from its surroundings, cutting itself off from african american patients until 1931 when, as Morrison describes, “the first colored expectant mother was [finally] allowed to give birth inside its wards and not on its steps.” Before this unexpected day, african americans were not granted the right to enter the halls of the hospital. Even the first african american doctor, who “had been dead a long time by 1931,” “had never been granted hospital privileges and only two of his patients were ever admitted to Mercy, both white.” As he worked with little assistance and acceptance, this doctor was even restricted helping his fellow man, forced to ignore family, friends, neighbors and anyone who had the same skin color as he did. Not only was the street a mark of contempt for the average african american man, woman and child, the hospital and its employees was shackled to this sadness and this imprint of bigotry. While this window to the home of Macon Dead that Morrison builds in this first chapter is short, within its two pages, it is able to shine and reveal the prejudice that has developed in the area, the victory of the caucasian americans and the defeat of the african

americans.