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Magical Realism In Toni Morrison's The Song Of Solomon

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The bildungsroman and long-time classic, The Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, explores multiple literary elements that develop the flight of the novel's main character, Milkman Dead. Magical realism, a phrase used to describe the authenticity of an object considered genuine, is used regularly to bring further meaning to Morrison's 1977 novel. Using this literary component, she brings the term to life in clever references that reflect its mythical existence to represent real life.
Named offhandedly by her father, Pilate Dead is the sister of our main character. Alienated from her father and brother, Milkman described his estranged sibling, saying, "For all the years he knew her, her stomach was as smooth and sturdy as her back, at no place …show more content…

Although easy to gloss over, a white or albino peacock is pure fiction and impossible. However, in the novel, Morrison introduces the bird with Milkman saying, "Some jive flying, but look at her strut." (Morrison 179). Next, Guitar says, "Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." (Morrison 179). This explanation of why a peacock cannot fly, even one as glamorous and beautiful, shows that its appearance and initial nature are a weight from its freedom as Guitar and Milkman decade to capture it. As always, Morrison deliberately puts this animal in the readers' path to show the weight of greed and selfishness that guides Milkman from his attraction to flight. In addition to the peacock, Morrison includes ghosts. Not including Pilate's communication with her late father, we learn about Circe. An old lady, Circe, is an enigma to Milkman as he describes her "That was as far as he got because although the woman was talking to him, she might in any case still be dead—as a matter of fact, she had to be dead. Not because of the wrinkles, and the face so old it could not be alive, but because out of the toothless mouth came the strong, mellifluent voice of a twenty year-old girl." (Morrison 240). Seemingly natural, Circe is the definition of someone who should be dead but alive, a ghost,

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Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, wasn’t what many people expected to read for class, I however expected to read about incest because of reading another Toni Morrison novel called The Bluest Eye. When I first read the other novel, I wasn’t really close reading what Toni Morrison was actually trying to convey with the novel. From this experience, I learned that I enjoy reading a Morrison novel when I am reading through some type of critical lens. It is reading a novel through a critical lens that makes someone pay closer attention to what the author is conveying through the novel. I was more engaged with the novel than I usually would because I was reading with the purpose of analyzing it with the psychoanalytical lens.

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“‘It looks tired,’ daddy added, ‘or maybe sick.’... At that moment the bird began to flutter, but the wings were uncoordinated, and amid flapping and spray of feathers, it tumbled down, bumping

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In the book Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, the book is a very good representation of the racial lens. The racial lens is a lens that has to deal with with racial slurs or sequences the character in the book encounter. Milkman is Guitar's best friend, and due to the fact that Milkman was always wealthy from birth and he lived on the other side of town, Milkman does not understand how someone could be so radicalized as Guitar is. Throughout the book, we can see how Guitar was always passionate about his race since his childhood, and how what white people have done has really affected him life. When Guitar’s father died in a brutal accident at his father’s work place, a white man came to tell him and his family and offered Guitar candy for his father's death.

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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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Cultural standards all over the world vary based on religion, economy, morals and numerous other factors. The infamous region of the United States known as Appalachia, where values and standards are as diverse as the hollows that define the region, is no different. Native Appalachian author Sharyn McCrumb inarguably portrays such values and standards that North Carolinian Loyal Jones also outlines in his excerpt from Voices From the Hills. Throughout the novel of She Walks These Hills McCrumb illustrates such traits by depicting life in the mountains of Mitchell County, North Carolina, whose citizens personify the mentioned traits of being independent, hospitality and love of place. As Jones discusses, “individualism, self-reliance and pride”

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Her name can also be used as irony. She wants to fly, and birds fly. When Birdie tries to fly, she fails. In the beginning she is successful because she is so tiny that she can stay in the air longer than most of the children. Once she falls in her competition, it is pretty much over for her.

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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.

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Flannery O’Connor’s The King of the Birds is a narrative explaining the narrator’s obsession with different kinds of fowl over time. The reader follows the narrator from her first experience with a chicken, which caught the attention of reporters due to its ability to walk both backward and forward, to her collection of peahens and peacocks. At the mere age of five, the narrator’s chicken was featured in the news and from that moment she began to build her family of fowl. The expansive collection began with chickens, but soon the narrator found a breed of bird that was even more intriguing; peacocks.

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Without familial ties and history, Milkman lacked the wisdom that comes with knowledge of the past, causing a disconnect between Milkman and his people. Milkman’s journey provides him with the answers to his identity problem allowing his family’s past to provide instruction, and protection, and a certain kind of wisdom necessary in finding his true self. Although Milkman must ultimately define himself, he is also defined by his relationships. He cannot learn these lessons in isolation but only within the context of the present community and relations of

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The reason why the peacock is unable to fly is similar to why Milkman is unable to fly symbolically because the peacock’s tail weight keeps it from flying, similar to how Milkman’s wealth hold him down. Milkman’s wealth causes him to have a unsympathetic and cocky

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His social awakening also inspires a change in attitude towards the treatment of women. Initially, Milkman objectifies Hagar and treats her as an inferior, but when he encounters Sweet, he begins to reciprocate her affections and treat her with respect. Furthermore, Milkman’s change in motivation for his flight south illustrates the development of his maturity through his pursuit of his family’s history, proving that attaining wealth is no longer his sole purpose. During his time south, Milkman was maliciously pursued by Guitar. His attempted murderer of Milkman creates the illusion of a resurrection to which Milkman develops social awareness.

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Written by the great Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon is where the song of African- Americans is sung with the most genuine and sincere voice in utmost entirety. In this essay, the masterpiece will be examined with gender studies approach and cultural studies approach, the function of Pilate and Ruth would be examined in depth, the suggestion that the protagonist should be more loving and caring for others would be fully explained, and the value of this book will be carefully examined. Part One: Critical Approach A significant character in Song of Solomon, Corinthians the First, can be analyzed through the gender studies approach and the cultural studies approach.

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This impact is proven in the epigraph of the novel when Morrison writes, “The fathers may soar/ And the children may know their names” (epigraph). An allusion to the African-American story about slaves who escaped slavery through flight; Morrison utilizes this epigraph to demonstrate the impact that the “flying africans” leave on a community. She discusses how the fathers soar, which is a direct reference to the flying africans of folklore, but also is a reference to the novel and Solomon who left his family to escape slavery. The children knowing their father’s names is also a reference to the motif of children’s song in the novel, due to the fact that the children in the town of Shalimar sing about Solomon and his flight.

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City of Chillicothe The locality chosen is the city of Chillicothe, Ohio and the following is social and economic information on the location as per the 2010 United States Census Bureau. The education differences in men and women is based on a 5 year estimates and according to the U.S. Cenus and American FactFinder the education differences in educational attainment for the locality of Chillicothe, Ohio is pretty close in percentage of high school grads and a higher education. It shows that men have high school graduate then women do.

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The religious allusion in Beloved serves many purposes. Creating a common ground for greater mutual understanding, religious allusion expands the audience and greatly helps to clarify many aspects of Morrison’s writing. Everyone knows the Bible, allowing for more universally reaching storytelling through her characterization, narration, and metaphorical writing. While painting vivid pictures of grandiose feasts, imminent apocalyptic destruction, and heavenly preaching figures, Morrison fashions unique identity and easily-comprehendible scenes. The many biblical allusions in Beloved help to universalize the novel, also serving a purpose of providing solid education in territory previously unknown to many modern readers.

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