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How Does Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon Relate To Music

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Throughout Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, music is a driving omnipresent force, revealing hidden truths about Milkman, Macon, and Pilate. If we were to apply a Freudian framework to Milkman’s familial life, Macon would be his ego – eternally in need of material possessions in order to create an image of himself he can admire – and Pilate would be his id – buried emotions and subconscious desires, overshadowed by his unforgivingly-egotistical Macon Dead exterior. Over the course of Milkman’s journey, music acts as a God-like omniscient presence, ultimately guiding him back to where he started, but flipped: instead of Pilate singing to Milkman as he is born, Milkman sings to Pilate as she dies. And the song itself plays into this reversal: Pilate sings “O Sugarman done fly away” at the birth of Milkman, and when Pilate has no words left to sing at the end of the novel, Milkman sings the …show more content…

We don’t see him singing until the very end, and he never brings up music at any point in the novel, up until the very end. So why did Morrison choose to open the book with Pilate singing at the birth of Milkman, if music wouldn’t be an obviously important part of the novel? To me, this is the genius of Morisson’s writing: instead of littering the entire book with references to some central theme of music, she opens with music and ends with music. Throughout the novel, then, our lingering motivation to keep reading is the desire to understand the role of music. By the end of the novel, when Milkman is singing to Pilate as she dies, we get it. The role of music in Song of Solomon is to help us understand the two worlds Milkman is stuck between: One full of music, one devoid of it. In the end, it took Pilate dying for Milkman to make up his mind, and that’s when he sings. It took a long journey, both physical and mental, yet ultimately, Milkman ends up back where he started: with Pilate, with

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Throughout Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Milkman Dead’s name serves as a constant reminder of his unhealthy relationship with his mother, Ruth Dead, which in itself is a reflection of her deep-rooted issues with her own personal life that are out of Milkman’s control. The significance of Milkman’s name has multiple layers to it. For example, it is important to recall that his real name is Macon because he makes a significant effort to distance himself from Macon Jr. and prove himself to be different from him. Ruth’s breastfeeding him well past his infancy results in his being stuck with the nickname “Milkman” before he is even old enough to understand the situation.

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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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While going through life one might find it difficult and see that they do not know where they are going. But yet Mark Twain once stated "The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why . The book Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison shows readers many life struggles through the eyes of the characters and how they improved later. Song of Solomon is about a man named Macon Dead the third, nicknamed Milkman, finding out about himself and his family throughout the story. Milkman does this by going on a journey into his family's past to backtrack to his grandfather, Macon Dead the first, to find out his family’s past.

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In Song of Solomon, the question of freedom appears frequently as it is one of the main themes. Through her writing, Toni Morrison is able to describe freedom as a type of reward that one is able to unlock after going on a journey to find who they are and why they exist and what their role in society is. In this novel, there are two parts, part 1 and part2. In part1, Macon Dead Jr commonly knows as Milkman is first introduced to the notion of freedom by his Aunt Pilate. As a child Milkman has always been isolated by both his family and friends as he is shunned by his heartless father Macon Dead.

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