Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison is a book construed with many different concepts. Such as, racial inequality, self-identity, and misogyny. Even though those concepts aren’t ones to be slept on, the most thought provoking concept is that a black man as a result of intuitional racism will either have to “Fight or Flight”. The opening scene of the book is a guy named Robert Smith, a life insurance agent, attempting to “fly” from Mercy Hospital to the other side of Lake Superior. (Page 3) It is ironic Mr. Smith being a life insurance agent and intentionally jumping off of the top of a building. Mr. Smith is fully aware that you cannot get life insurance if you commit suicide. Was Mr. Smith trying to escape a reality that he couldn’t handle? Solomon, is Milkman Dead’s great-grandfather, who used to live in Virginia. Solomon was a slave, who had 21 children. He “flew” off to Africa, leaving his wife, Ryna, behind and devastated. Why did Solomon leave his family? Was it too much responsibility for him? This myth provokes Milkman’s curiosity and the investigation of
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The birds circling over Pilate’s body after she is killed by Guitar’s bullet that was meant for Milkman (Page 335-336), proposes that physical death is not the end of her existence. The swooping down of one bird to take Pilate’s snuffbox up to the sky indicates that her name will live on and because she has so long clutched her name as a crucial part of her identity, it is clear that she too will live on. Even as Pilate’s body lies still on the ground, Milkman himself takes flight. Having learned the story of his heritage he is now fully alive. We do not know whose death will result from Milkman’s leap at Guitar, but Morrison suggests that whether Milkman kills or is killed doesn’t really matter, since Milkman, now graced with a rich sense of his identity, will live on after death just as Pilate will and just as Solomon has in the song that bears his
The birds circling over Pilate’s body after she is killed by Guitar’s bullet that was meant for Milkman (Page 335-336), proposes that physical death is not the end of her existence. The swooping down of one bird to take Pilate’s snuffbox up to the sky indicates that her name will live on and because she has so long clutched her name as a crucial part of her identity, it is clear that she too will live on. Even as Pilate’s body lies still on the ground, Milkman himself takes flight. Having learned the story of his heritage he is now fully alive. We do not know whose death will result from Milkman’s leap at Guitar, but Morrison suggests that whether Milkman kills or is killed doesn’t really matter, since Milkman, now graced with a rich sense of his identity, will live on after death just as Pilate will and just as Solomon has in the song that bears his