Essay on Identity in Song of Solomon -- Song Solomon essays

Searching for Identity in Song of Solomon Abstract Whether Africans sincerely fly or just escape a monumental burden, peradventure only through death, is a decision Toni Morrison has apparently left to her readers. neer the less, no matter what you believe, within Song of Solomon, the suggestion is, that in lodge to fly you must go back to the beginning, back to your roots. You must stop the art from the old messages. O Sugarman through fly away Sugarman d unmatched g hotshot Sugarman cut across the sky Sugarman gone home... (6)1 Milkman was born to fly. peradventure not Maybe, he was just doomed to a life of flight. Toni Morrison evidently presents her readers a choice. Milkman is born under a paradoxical cloud. His life seems to be destined for controversy. Toni Morrison eventually leaves the reader with a choose your own closing configuration. As in Beloved, Morrisons unique style of ending a tonic with no finalization, only enhances the content and tickles the imagin ation. Evidence of the influence of Zora Neale Hurston is sprinkled liberally passim the story. In addition to folklore and mythology, Song of Solomon is also rife with the cold, hard facts of reality. Did Milkman rattling become airborne or was he merely a man, consistently trying to escape reality? Toni Morrisons, Song of Solomon, was inspired in part, by All Gods Chillun Had Wings (Andrews et al 103). According to this folk tale, at one time all Africans could fly. Through transgressions, they lost the ability of flight. On occasion, mortal would shake off the weight of their burdens and be able to fly. Only a select few held onto remnants of the memory of flight. According to a legend in Hurston, the transgression, ... ...to converge in the distance. Soon they begin to twine and twist together. At the core, is a solid rope, with each strand braided neatly with the others to relieve oneself a tightly woven story. With its many parts, but only one beginning, Song of Solomon is absolutely, the perfect soft-boiled egg (40). Works Cited Andrews, William L., et al. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York W.W. Norton & Co., 1997. 103 Barnhart, C.L., et al. The American College Dictionary. New York Random House, 1970. 919 Heinze, Denise. The Dilemma of Double-Consciousness Toni Morrisons Novels. Athens The University of gallium Press, 1993. 14 Hurston, Zora Neale. Hurston Folklore, Memoirs, & other Writings. Ed. Cheryl A. Wall. New York Penguin Books,1995. 315, 581, 597, 618 Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York Penguin Books, 1977.