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Essay On Milkman's Journey In Song Of Solomon

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Throughout literature, most novels incorporate an adventure and an exploration theme about the hero journeying to find their path. In the novel Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, it begins depicting Milkman as a feeble dependent character that relies on his friends and family for all of his needs. However, as the novel progresses the view of Milkman develops into an independent figure through a journey. Milkman’s personality and mindset shift as the purpose of the journey diverts away from gold and greed. He comes to realize what’s important in the world and begins exploring what really matters; his race, family’s homes, and identity in the world. Milkman’s identity begins taking shape as a child with his family that constantly coddles him …show more content…

Before the journey, superficial things clouded Milkman’s judgement. He sees no importance in social inequality or why race is so significant, “The racial problems that consumed Guitar were the most boring of all. He wondered what they would do if they didn’t have the black and white problems to talk about. Who would they be if they couldn’t describe the insults, violence, and oppression that their lives (and the television news) were made up of?” (107-108). He is represented with an oblivious mind, and sees everything around him irrelevant if it does not relate to himself in a way. As he continues throughout his journey, Milkman encounters, for the first time, a struggle of not getting what he wants. As he digs for the gold, for the first time, his mind shifts from the capitalistic north and embrace nature, “His watch and his two hundred dollars would be of no help out here, where all a man had was what he was born with, or had learned to use” (277). As he begins to separate himself from white culture, he embraces in his natural skills. This was just the first step to shape Milkman into embracing and seeing his ethnicity. In Shalimar, he finds much of his family history packed into the small town. While learning about his heritage, he meets two women, Susan Byrd and Grace Long, who revolutionize the way he thinks of himself. When they first meet, they discuss the idea of

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Furthermore, Ruth’s endless, captivating love restricts Milkman and thwarts his personality’s development to a mature man. His search for his self cannot be satisfied at home since he has no space to become independent or is regarded as a separate

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Milkman, who believes in justice, does not think these violent actions are vindicated and attempts to convince Guitar that his actions are unacceptable further on in their conversation. “You can’t stop them from killing us, from trying to get rid of us…I help keep the numbers the same… But when a Negro child, Negro woman, or Negro man is killed by whites and nothing is done about it by their law and their courts, this society selects a similar victim at random.” Here Guitar is bitter at the unfair treatment and defends the society’s actions by accusing whites of initiating all the violence and for failing to give equality. The death of his father in a sawmill accident painted all whites in a negative light and he desperately wants change.

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Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is a novel that is set in the 20th century, Michigan which follows the life of Macon Dead III, who gets the nickname milkman. His sisters are Magdalene, who is called Lena, and First Corinthians. His parents are Ruth and Macon Dead Jr. Unlike most African American families during this time period, the Dead family were financially stable and could afford things that were deemed luxurious. Even though they had money, they still were unhappy with their lives. This shows that you can be living ,but you can also be dead.

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Milkman discovers his family name and history, and while on his journey, Milkman finds happiness, understanding, and a sense of identity. While the actual findings of his family is important, Milkman’s discovery of his own identity through his family’s history is the true take-away from the

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This unwinding road of exploration beings with the idea of love. Milkman is portrayed to have a different definition of love, it is one that is young and naive. “When the two had managed to get the basket into the room, the girl stretched her back and turned around, facing them. But Milkman had no need to see her face; he had already fallen in love with her behind. ”(43).

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Milkman was born into a sheltered, privileged life. He lacked compassion, wallows in self-pity, and he alienated himself from the African-American community. Eventually the discovery of his family history gave his life purpose.

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