The Theme Of Death In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

Departure, passing, demise, death. Departure of life, the passing of one life to the next, demise to the grave, all revolve around death. Death comes and goes when it pleases, but it always returns. Death is as natural as life is, when life is given, death will follow and take the person’s breath. In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, death is a theme that appears multiple times throughout the story. One of the core characters, Pilate, describes how there “ain’t nothin natural about death. It’s the most unnatural thing they is” (140), a rebuttal to the common approach that death is innate and will never cease and that it comes when it pleases. Pilate states “don’t nobody have to die if they don’t want to” (140), and the people themselves should

The opening scene of the story is the suicide of Mr. Smith, who leaps from the cupola of Mercy Hospital. He chooses to fling himself off the building and soon learns that his wings are not like an airplane nor a bird, and he plummets leaving behind a pile of rose petals sprinkled across the ground that is dropped by Ruth. As depicted above, Mr. Smith had chosen to die, not letting himself be taken by the elements. By Pilate’s logic, herself, Hagar, Circe, and Milkman had either chosen to die or had hung closely to the life they were given. The thing about death is that you can’t choose when to die, unless it’s suicide or some other self-inflicted injury. Most of the time, it just comes, which is why Pilate’s belief is considered by Ruth to be so absurd, but almost plausible. Ruth had always fantasized that her father wanted to die, most likely due to Ruth’s insidious acts. Throughout the book we see other examples of character’s resonating with Pilate’s statement with the group of hunters in the forest singing “what good is a man’s life if he can’t even choose what to die for” (282) while cutting up the

The last sentence of the novel depicts Milkman surrendering to the air and riding it just as Shalimar did. It is unknown whether he dies while jumping off of Solomon’s Leap or flys to Africa just as his great-grandfather had, but it is for certain that he is gone. Much of Milkman’s family has split off and is not in tension, Corinthians with Porter, Hagar has died, Ruth, and Lena are together, and Macon and Pilate have acknowledged each other. Milkman recounts how “no reconciliation took place between Pilate and Macon (although he seemed pleased to know that they were going to bury their father in Virginia)” (335). Which is a promising start compared to the start of the novel where Macon compares Pilate to a conniving snake. Ruth organized the funeral for Hagar and stood up to Macon, demanding more and more money for the procession. Lena still makes velvet roses, but is acting more civil towards Milkman, exemplifying her moving forward from the past and focusing on the present and future. Corinthians is described as having “moved to a small house in Southside, which she shared with Porter” (334), who is her lover, the one that Milkman had torn her away from and caused Corinthians to be visibly upset and Lena to despise Milkman. Perhaps Milkman has flown because he sees that his family, as well as