Essay on Control in Song of Solomon

While Milkman is searching for his family’s history in Shalimar, he encounters the song about his ancestors Solomon’s flight. Another example of selective perception, even though Solomon abandoned his family and his community, the fact that he escaped slavery turned him into a religious figure in Shalimar. Milkman describes Shalimar as a place where “everything was named Solomon” (302). However, the thing that really caught Milkman’s attention was a song sung by children about his grandfather and great grandparents and how his great grandfather Solomon flew. The town being named after Solomon shows the respect the people have for the escapee, even though it has been close to a century since the abolition of slavery, but because he is the one of the few people who did escape to the north during before abolition, escaping oppression, he is still

As she cooks the egg, she explains how to make a perfect egg, which includes “tak[ing] the pot off of the fire” just as “the tiny bubbles come to the surface, when they as big as peas and just before they get as big as marbles.” There are several other instructions that Pilate believes are necessary in the process of cooking the perfect egg and she carefully explains them all. However, the symbolism of the egg is revealed after they are cooked, as Pilate begins to peel the shell off of the eggs and then “split [the eggs] open, revealing the reddish-yellow centers.” As she does this, she begins revealing stories and memories of her past to Milkman and Guitar. These stories begin to give Milkman insight into what happened to his grandfather and the rest of his relatives. In this situation, Pilate revealing the soft-boiled egg and its center by peeling back the shell and splitting them open mirrors the fact that she is revealing information about Milkman’s ancestry, which is what he continues to search for later in the journey. At the end of her story, Pilate is described as “scrap[ing] the eggshells together into a little heap, her fingers fanning out over and over again in a gentle sweeping.” This signifies the fact that both the stories, and the process of peeling the soft-boiled egg, are over. In this situation,

People often admire and yearn for the natural state of bliss a child has due to their ignorance of what 's going on around them. Although it is said that ignorance is bliss, but it is not always a good thing. As an adolescent, that bliss works to your advantage, but as a person gets older it only hinders your growth. Most times one does not know that they have remained stagnant until it has become known. In the novel Song of Solomon, by Tori Morrison, Milkman was unaware of his current state until it was made known to him.As a result, he unconsciously came of age through inner and external revelations.

Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon set in the mid-20th century provides an in-depth look at racism through the use of plot and character development throughout the novel. The author presents the friendship of two very different young men that depict the way one's upbringing can affect the outcome of their life. While Milkman and Guitar share an unbreakable bond as children, the older they get, the harder it becomes for them to remain being friends. In this novel, Morrison makes several statements regarding being a young African American in the second half of the 20th century through the portrayal of Guitar and Milkman’s response to racism, while Milkman represents those who remain isolated from issues in society and do nothing to better their situation in life, Guitar represents those who take action against injustices not only for their community but also to obtain some control over their own lives.

For the first years, Hagar does not pay much attention to Milkman and he perceived her as “a distant creature” (113) while she views him as a “puppy” since she is the older of them (114). In the course of time, their relationship changes and Milkman realizes that he no longer feels attracted to her. From this moment forth, Hagar makes “Milkman the center of her life” by becoming the active since Milkman no longer chases her (Qasim and Asmat 193). Apparently Milkman loses interest when he seems to own her. Interestingly, this relationship is primarily depicted as a physical one. This directly results in the fact that Milkman’s interest is primarily of a sexual nature, but does not truly love or value her. So it is not surprising that, instead of recognizing true love, he describes Hagar as “the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it’s there, because it can’t hurt, and because what difference

That this leap occurs over Pilate's body, whose lack of navel has already established her as a myth or a different reality's possibility, further disrupts any optimistically simple reading of Milkman's action as one of untroubled transcendence. Milkman's response to Pilate's death is personal and somewhat selfish. His immediate concern is that there must "be at least one more woman" like her (336). For him, Pilate is subsumed by his desire for what she has meant in his life. So, although he has learned history, in the end Milkman is unable to take that history past the level of personal need. Milkman remains very much the self-concerned individual whose realization of himself as a human collage of history cannot undo his desire to be shown one "true" path to power and understanding.

Besides the children of Macon Dead, there are other biblical allusions in the names of people. One of these is Hagar, Pilate's son and Milkman's cousin. Though the biblical Hagar is not well known, her character in the Bible reflects, in some ways, the character in Morrison's novel. In the bible, Hagar is Sarah's handmaiden. When she bares the son

Song of Solomon, written by Toni Morrison, is a magical realism novel that takes place in the 1940s, before the Civil Rights movement. The novel is about the life of a boy named Macon Dead III, who soon acquired the nickname Milkman. He struggles with figuring out who he is and being independent. But once he learns about his family’s roots, he slowly starts to move away from his family’s reach. Morrison argues that knowing where one comes from helps one build independence and establish an individual’s identity.

The irony in this is the fact that Milkman had just hit Macon for hitting his mother but did not defend her out of love. Milkman does things just because he wants to, not because he cares. Milkman’s apathy towards his mother foreshadows how he is with all the other woman in his life. For example, his cousin and lover, Hagar, has fallen madly in love with Milkman but he does not feel the same. After a couple of years, Milkman is “getting tired of her” (91) and had compared her to the third beer, the one “you drink because it’s

This repetition confirms that when she has an idea, she fixates on it until she sees it through. Surely enough, Hagar does not take a moment’s breath until she has finished fixing the problem of her looks to make Milkman love her appearence. Hagar’s obsessiveness surpasses physical action; Her mind always thinks in regards to Milkman. As she “gazes hungrily” at Ruth, Hagar jealously broods over all of the things Milkman’s family got to do that she could not, including “[stick their] fingers in his mouth to soothe his gums”, “[catch] his vomit in a fresh white diaper”, and “could walk freely into his room if she wanted to and smell his clothes” (137). These detailed desires display Hagar’s obsession.

The African American families in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon present abnormality and dysfunction. Normalcy, seen in common nuclear families, is absent. The protagonist, Milkman, is shaped by his dysfunctional relationships with parental figures.

It can be said that Song of Solomon is bildungsroman which is defined by The Encyclopedia Britannica as “a class of novel that deals with the [coming-of-age or] formative years of an individual”. Furthermore, in a bildungsroman, a main protagonist usually undergoes some transformation after seeking truth or philosophical enlightenment. In Morrison’s novel, the plot follows the main protagonist Milkman as he matures within his community while developing relationships with others and discovering his individual identity. In an essay titled Call and Response, Marilyn Sanders Mobley notes that “What Song of Solomon does ultimately is suggest that a viable sense of African American identity comes from responding to alternative constructions of

As Hagar’s love for Milkman grows more and more obsessive, Morrison reveals the bitter consequences of life as a woman seeking intimacy in a strictly patriarchal world. In the beginning of the novel, Hagar is associated primarily with her female relatives, Reba and Pilate. Even then, well-fed Hagar declares, “Some of my days were hungry

Over the course of the novel, one realizes that Hagar's loneliness and depression are, in fact, brought on by her pride, detached emotions, obstinacy and ignorance which she uses, subconsciously or not, to push those who love her most away. Hagar Currie was incapable of loving others, much like

In the same fashion that the law binds the Biblical Hagar to Abram and Sarah, Hagar Shipley is bound by - as D. Blewett points out - the Currie code of values, the Shipley freedom, and the Manawakan elitist attitude, in addition to her own pride (Blewett 36). Hagar Shipley is a modernised version of the Biblical Hagar, in that, people can no longer be bound as slaves in western culture but are, quite often, bound by personal or social restraints, like Hagar is. Hagar's freedom is limited by the conflicting influences - internal versus external - in her own life. The Currie virtue keeps Hagar from expressing any outward form of emotion, which, ultimately, limits or ruins the majority of her relationships, including her marriage to Brampton Shipley. Initially attracted to the Shipley casualness and freedom, because it is the exact opposite to the Currie conformity, Hagar marries Bram, a poor farmer and social