Flight In Song Of Solomon

In the novel Song of Solomon, written by Toni Morrison, the concept of flight is used as a literal and metaphorical symbol of escape. Flight has several meanings and interpretations such as, soaring through the sky, running away from something, suicide, a continuous series of stairs from one landing or floor to another, etc. What most people don’t realize is that by choosing to fly away as a means to escape, a person is also deliberately choosing to abandon their life while leaving their family and friends confused and angry. There are three characters in the novel, Robert Smith, Solomon, and Milkman that choose to “fly” as a means to escape.

The novel, Song of Solomon, begins with the unanticipated suicide of Robert Smith, an agent of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance company. Standing on the roof of Mercy Hospital, Smith proclaimed to an increasing crowd that he would, "take off from Mercy and fly away on my[his] own wings" (Morrison 3-5). After he proclaimed this he took flight and fell to his death near the crowd. When the crowd gathered to view Smith’s …show more content…
According to the legend, Solomon had launched himself into the air like a missile, “cut across the sky,” and “gone home” (Morrison 303). Similar to Robert Smith Solomon achieved freedom through a flight, but also his escape emotionally hurt his family that he left behind. Unlike Robert Smith, the reader, later on, discovers that Solomon left behind twenty-one children and his wife, Reyna, who “fell down on the ground…[and] threw her body all around” in anguish and heartbreak (Morrison 303). The legend of Solomon’s flight doesn’t just inspire the residents of Shalimar, Virginia, who acknowledge Solomon’s legend as their only “evidence” of the possibility of human flight, but also Milkman and his