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

Searching for Identity in Song of Solomon digest Whether Africans really fly or just escape a monumental burden, perhaps still through death, is a decision Toni Morrison has apparently left wing to her readers. Never the less, no matter what you believe, within Song of Solomon, the suggestion is, that in order to fly you must go back to the beginning, back to your roots. You must learn the art from the old messages. O Sugarman done fly outside(a) Sugarman done gone Sugarman cut across the sky Sugarman gone home... (6)1 Milkman was natural to fly. Perhaps not Maybe, he was just doomed to a demeanor of flight. Toni Morrison seemingly presents her readers a choice. Milkman is born under a paradoxical cloud. His emotional state seems to be destined for controversy. Toni Morrison eventually leaves the reader with a choose your hold ending configuration. As in Beloved, Morrisons unique style of ending a novel with no finalization, only enhances the content and tickles the im agination. Evidence of the influence of Zora Neale Hurston is sprinkled munificently throughout the story. In addition to folklore and mythology, Song of Solomon is also rife with the cold, unassailable facts of reality. Did Milkman actually 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, someone would shake off the weight of their burdens and be able to fly. provided a select few held onto remnants of the memory of flight. According to a apologue in Hurston, the transgression, ... ...to converge in the distance. Soon they begin to twine and deprave together. At the core, is a solid rope, with each strand braided neatly with the others to form 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. capital of Greece The University of Georgia 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.