Summary Of Flight In Song Of Solomon

Throughout the story, the narrator perceives Robert as an inadequate person, pathetic, needing help to find his way around and simply not being able to provide for himself. “But he didn’t use a cane and he didn’t

They are arrested and find only human bones and rocks not gold in the bag, which essentially destroys his sense of flight. His father Macon and aunt Pilate go to the jail to get them released. Pilate performed an aunt Jemima act to assist in their release. Guitar is ashamed of her act but Milkman feels honored ?but the fact that she was both adept at it and willing to do it-for him.? [pg 209] This is when Milkman begins to reveal another side for which he begins to mature and care for others. Which leads him to Pennsylvania, in search of the gold to reach his financial independence.

     Through despair, Robert forces himself to keep with his ideals, which shows just how strong his resolve is. When Robert was in despair, he took his mind off his problems by keeping himself busy. After losing Rowena, Robert decides to join the army to replace taking care of Rowena, by taking care of the human condition. Later when Robert loses Harris, he busies himself by performing the last rites over his good friend. “This is not a military funeral. This is just a burial at sea. May we all remove our caps? (p107)” Later when Robert is attacked in the bath house, he finds that he is still trying to protect Rowena. He does this by lighting her pictures on fire to remove her from this cruel world. “Robert sat on the mutilated mattress and opened his kit bag. Everything was there – including the picture of Rowena. Robert burned it in the middle of the floor. This was not an act of anger – but an act of charity. (p172)” These show that even through despair, Robert manages to stick to his ideals.

Our memories, thoughts and stories are what define us, and in the graphic novel the bull is depicted as leading us into a reminiscing state. A narrative quote about the boy is, “he was lead by the bull into a world of remembering”. The boy wanting to make his own stories and have his own adventures illustrates this quote and theme of remembering throughout the book. The boy does not think about where it is leading him only that the more he remembers the more he is able to grasp the situation he is in and comprehended what he needs to do. The novel follows two stories. One is the aboriginal woman and the other is of the boy. They are two very different stories but together they lead in to a reminiscing journey and then unite when the boy decides to make contact with the family that has lived for years with a tragedy that involved for them an unsolved mystery, a mystery for which he has the answer. The boy grows to love and respect the bull even though he knows he must destroy it. As he follows the

In the novel Song of Solomon, a central motif of flight was dominant throughout the entire book. Song of Solomon starts off the first scene of the book with a man surrounded by an audience who are watching him decide whether or not he is going to jump off the roof of a building. The man that was on top of the building was Robert Smith. It is never said in the book, but it can be assumed that Robert Smith was one of the Seven Days men. The Seven Days is a group of black men who respond to a person of color getting killed by a white person by taking seven days to kill one white person for every person of color that is killed. Smith’s attempt to jump off of the building seemed like he actually believed that he could physically fly, even though he ended up just falling to his death. The theme of flight was mentioned countless times throughout the rest of the novel, and even in the last scene of the novel, when Milkman “takes flight” for the first and last time, multiple physical references to flight are mentioned. The central idea of flight is what the book centers around and flight helps create a journey that is full of personal growth and reflection for the main character Milkman. The countless references about flight, and a link between self acceptance and naming in the book create the build up that leads to Milkman’s “flight” at the end of the book.

One of the women made the comment that Mrs. Wright used to be pretty and happy, when she was Minnie Foster not Minnie Wright. This is just the beginning of realizing that she was just pushed to far into depression and couldn't live up to John Wright's expectations anymore. The Wrights had no children and Mrs. Wright was alone in the house all day long. The women perceive John Wright to be a controlling husband who in fact probably wouldn't have children and this may have upset Mrs. Wright. They eventually find vacant bird cage and ponder upon what happened to the bird, realizing Mrs. Wright was lonely they figured she loved the bird and it kept her company. The women make reference to the fact that Mrs. Wright was kind of like a bird herself, and that she changed so much since she married John Wright. They begin looking for stuff to bring her and they find the bird dead and they realize someone had wrung its neck. This is when they realize Mrs. Wright was in fact pushed to far, John Wright had wrung her bird's neck and in return Minnie Wright wrung his.

Years later, Milkman and his friend, Guitar, are amazed by the mysterious, even mystical appearance of a peacock over the building of the used car lot where they stand. As the bird descends, Milkman mistakes it for a female, but Guitar corrects him: "He. That's a he. The male is the only one got that tail full of jewelry. Son of a bitch." Milkman, in all his innocent conviction of male superiority, asks why the peacock can fly no better than a chicken, and Guitar, who wants to catch and eat the bird, answers, "Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down" (179-80).

Guitar Bains has been Milkman's best friend since they were children. The two share many memories and through them developed a strong bond. As Guitar and

Many of the symbols in the novel remind Robert of his troubled past. Some of the symbols in the book appeal to both the reader and Robert, exacerbating his struggles. After finishing his training, Robert boards a ship headed for the war zone. When tasked horse injured onboard the ship, he is clearly troubled; as he is unsuccessful in killing the horse the first time, “[a] chair [falls] over in his mind” (Findley 60). The horse is a symbol of Rowena, an innocent person who dies because of her disability. During training, he feels socially obliged to go to a brothel with his peers, and experiences shame associated with the death of Rowena. Instead of watching over her, Robert was “[m]aking love to his pillows” (Findley 16). As a result, he is very insecure about his sexuality and his private life in general. The scene where he is sitting in the bathtub after Rowena’s death is symbolic of Robert giving up his childhood, concomitant with his innocence. The tub represents the womb; his mother tells him a story of his childhood one last time before he joins the army, becoming an adult in some sense. Through symbolism, one can make the connection between Robert’s troubled past, the cruel world he lives in, and his experiences in the war.

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

Flight can be associated with birds and the ability to spread the wings and fly. This can often be seen in the novel. In this quote Alcee Arobin tells Edna;

Before Milkman leaves his home in Michigan, he perceives the world in materialistic, unyielding terms that recall his father's behavior. Indeed, the search for gold that sends him to Virginia reveals his perception that escaping from his past and his responsibilities and finding material treasure will guarantee him a sense of his own identity.

Similarly, Milkman dehumanizes and objectifies the women around him. At the head of the fight, the novel introduces Milkman’s age as “twenty-two and… had been fucking for six years,” highlighting the prominent role that sex with women plays in his maturity and erasing the individuality of the women behind the “fuck” (64). On the surface, his defense of his mother and defiance against his father conjures kindness and compassion; however, Milkman reveals his motives to be of a less pure origin. He struck his father back, not out of love for his mother, calling her “too

All that Milkman knows of his family's roots are the facts that they originated in Virginia and his grandfather was killed on his farm in Pennsylvania.  He knows nothing of his ancestor's struggles with oppression and slavery.  Therefore he does not understand or appreciate his African American heritage. When Milkman is in his thirties he does, however, learn of a story of the possibility of gold being hid in a cave in where his father grew up.  Milkman believes that if he finds this gold that he will have the wealth and power that he needs to be free of his father's rule.  What Milkman doesn't realize is that not only is he about to embark on a "gold hunt" for gold he is also on a "gold hunt" for his identity.