Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
"Song of Solomon" is a powerful novel by Toni Morrison that explores themes of identity, family, and heritage through the life of its protagonist, Milkman Dead. Born into a troubled family in Detroit, Milkman grapples with the complexities of his lineage, marked by a mother clinging to past glories and a father, Macon Dead, who is a ruthless landlord. The narrative weaves through Milkman's relationships, particularly with his aunt Pilate, who becomes a pivotal figure in his quest for self-discovery.
As Milkman embarks on a journey to unearth his family's history, he learns about his ancestors, including his grandfather, a former slave, and the tragic consequences of past betrayals. The novel is steeped in African American folklore, symbolized by the song about Solomon, which plays a crucial role in connecting Milkman to his roots. Morrison's work delves into the struggle for personal and cultural identity against the backdrop of systemic oppression and familial dysfunction. "Song of Solomon" is a rich tapestry of narrative that invites readers to reflect on the complexities of belonging and the legacies that shape individual lives.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
First published: 1977
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Bildungsroman
Time of plot: 1869–1963
Locale: Detroit, Michigan
Principal Characters
Milkman Dead , an African American manMacon Dead , his fatherRuth Foster Dead , his motherPilate Dead , his auntHagar , his second cousinGuitar Bains , his closest friendFirst Corinthians andLena , his sisters
The Story
Milkman Dead, so called because his lonely mother, Ruth Foster Dead, nursed him until he was six years old, grows up hating his family. His mother clings to her faded glory as the only daughter of Detroit’s first black doctor. His father, Macon Dead, is a ruthless landlord who built a successful realty business by exploiting his black tenants in Southside (the black section of the city, also called the Blood Bank for its frequent eruptions of violence) and who abused his wife.
At age twelve, Milkman meets Guitar Bains. Guitar introduces him to Milkman’s father’s sister, Pilate, whom Milkman knows his father hates. Pilate supports herself, her illegitimate daughter Reba, and Reba’s illegitimate daughter Hagar by making and selling bootleg wine. Milkman falls instantly in love with the beautiful Hagar, though she is five years older than he, and later maintains with her a sporadic affair that ends in tragedy.
Milkman’s first visit to Pilate marks the beginning of his stumbling, almost inadvertent quest for identity. His father forbids him to visit Pilate and tries to explain his decision by telling Milkman what he can remember about his family and his own boyhood. He remembers that Milkman’s grandfather, the first Macon Dead, was an illiterate slave freed at the end of the Civil War. He received his unusual name as a teenager in 1869, when a drunken Union army interviewer mistakenly combined his birthplace, Macon, and the status of his father, dead, in the space reserved for his name on his Freedmen’s Bureau registration form. This first Macon Dead came north on a wagon filled with former slaves and, sometime before 1887, began building a profitable farm from nothing near the town of Danville, Pennsylvania. His son, the second Macon Dead, was born in 1891, and in 1895, his wife died giving birth to a daughter, Pilate. In 1903, the first Macon Dead was murdered by white landowners, who stole his farm. Milkman’s father, then sixteen, and his aunt Pilate, then twelve, were hidden by Circe, a black cook, in her master’s mansion until they could escape.
Milkman works for his father during the years of World War II, and the business prospers. During a dinner-table argument in 1953, Macon hits his wife and Milkman assaults his father. His father then explains to Milkman that he hates his wife because she and her father, the late Dr. Foster, carried on an incestuous affair. Milkman’s mother denies the affair and tells Milkman that his own father, her husband, tried to abort him. Milkman’s friend Guitar tells Milkman that he joined the Seven Days, a secret society that avenges murdered African Americans.
Disturbed by these revelations, Milkman begs his father to stake him to a new start, inadvertently mentioning a green bag, which Pilate calls her inheritance, hanging in Pilate’s house. Startled, Macon tells Milkman how he and Pilate hid in a cave after the murder of their father, how he fought with and killed a white man also hiding in the cave, and how he and Pilate found a fortune in gold while hiding the body. Macon wanted to steal it, but Pilate stopped him. Macon suspected that the gold was in Pilate’s bag, that she returned and stole the gold for herself. Milkman and Guitar, who plan to use his share of the gold to bankroll the Seven Days, steal the bag, but it contains nothing but bones, which Pilate says belong to the white man Macon killed in the cave. Haunted by guilt, she retrieved them months after the killing. Milkman then goes to Pennsylvania to recover the gold.
In Pennsylvania, Milkman finds the cave but not the gold and learns that his grandfather’s body, buried in a shallow grave by his murderers, was washed out by the river and was later thrown into the cave, which means that the bones in Pilate’s bag are actually her father’s. Milkman then looks for the gold in the tiny hamlet of Shalimar, Virginia, where Pilate lived for a time after her father’s death. Guitar, thinking Milkman is trying to cheat the Seven Days by keeping all the gold for himself, follows and tries to kill Milkman, but Milkman fights him off. In Shalimar, Milkman hears children singing a song that reminds him of a song he heard Pilate sing, except the children sing about “Solomon,” and Pilate sang about “Sugarman.” From local residents Milkman begins piecing together his lost family history and discovers that the children’s song is that family history. The hero of the song is an African named Solomon who can fly. Solomon tries to carry his twenty-first child, a boy named Jake, home to Africa, but drops the boy and goes on alone. That boy is Milkman’s grandfather, Jake Solomon, renamed Macon Dead in 1869.
Milkman goes home, returning to Shalimar with Pilate and the bones of his grandfather, which they bury at Solomon’s Leap, the spot from which legend claims Solomon had flown. The obsessed Guitar, hiding in the woods, fires a rifle at Milkman but misses, killing Pilate instead. Milkman charges Guitar, and the story ends with the two locked in mortal combat.
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