The Use Of Biblical Names In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

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Have you ever read a book, and when reading, it brings you to draw parallels comparisons like some you have read from the bible? Tony Morrison’s use of biblical names like Hagar, Pilate, and Ruth encourages readers to draw connections between the lives of the biblical characters and some of the characters in the novel, adding depth, meaning, and richness to the story.
Hagar in the novel was Pilate’s granddaughter and cousin to Milkman. Hagar devoted herself to Milkman even though he lost interest and frequently rejected her. Used and rejected, she ultimately goes crazy and attempts to murder Milkman; Song of Solomon, Chapter 5 Page 126-130. Her plight demonstrates the inevitable abandonment of women who love men too much. Pilate who is …show more content…

“The chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitude to ask Barabbas, and that Jesus should be put to death. The governor answered and said to them, which of the two do you want me to release? And they said: to Barabbas. Pilate said to them: What, then, will I do about Jesus, called the Christ? They all said: Be crucified! Then he released Barabbas to them; and having scourged Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified” (Matthew 27:20-26 KJV Bible). Sort of like Pontius Pilate, on the inside Pilate seemed bad, which was how Macon Jr. described her as a “snake”. But on the inside, she could also be viewed as good like how Milkman saw her. When Pilate is dying at the end of the novel she says something that is associated to what a good a person would say. She tells him “she wishes she could have known more people so that she could have loved more people” (Song of Solomon Page 336). Pilate is an opposite of her namesake. Pilate in the book of Song of Solomon was a female while Pilate in the Bible was a male. Pilate in the novel was independent, caring and she sacrificed herself for Milkman. Meanwhile Pilate in the bible seemed to have favored negotiation rather than confrontation. He kind of sends Jesus to death out of peer pressure and didn’t really feel responsible for …show more content…

These two young men took for wife’s Orpah and Ruth. Both Mahlon and Chilion died ten years later, leaving her mother Naomi with her two daughters in law. Naomi told both Orpah and Ruth, “Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her. And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law. And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God”. (KJV Bible, Ruth 1 Verse 8-16). Ruth in both the Bible and in the novel, were alike. In the Bible, even after her husband dies, she refuses to leave her mother in law. In Song of Solomon, after Ruth’s father dies, she refuses to leave him for a new life. They both stayed loyal to their love ones. Some differences between Ruth from the Bible and Song of Solomon are the following… in the Bible Ruth’s husband died while Ruth father died in the novel. Ruth in the Bible kept on with her life. She and her mother in law moved to Belen, where Ruth picked up spikes in the field of Boaz. Over the time Boaz took care of Ruth and

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