Character Analysis: Song Of Solomon

Nick Brauer
Intro to Lit
Professor Soderberg
18 March 2018
Song of Solomon Argument When love is supposed to embody the ideas of happiness, bliss, and serenity, it is so commonly forgotten that not far outside the ideas of love is hate and pain. In Song of Solomon, love is one of the most powerful and evident emotions present in the novel. Throughout the novel, many characters develop or continue loving relationships that help bind them together. However, love is a very binding emotion, yet it can also be detrimental to one’s morality, happiness, and self-esteem. Sometimes love and hate become such a blur that it becomes indistinguishable. When ones’ obsession or infatuation, in many different forms and on a variety of levels, becomes

When Ruth’s father dies it leaves her emotionally unstable. She becomes unable to express emotion to others and expects her family to be able to show the same care and love to her that her father did. She took her families caring spirits for granted just like she did with her father. This portrays Ruth’s inability to show true love. Also, she is incapable of performing normal motherly tasks for her family. Morrison writes, “‘In the bed,” he said. That’s where she was when I opened the door. Lying next to him. Naked as a yard dog, kissing him. Him dead and white and puffy and skinny, and she had his fingers in her mouth”” (73). The strange “love” that Ruth possesses for Dr. Foster not only alienates her from Macon and her family more than she already is, but forces her to live an emotionless, depressing life. Her only attempt to retain emotions comes though Milkman as Macon has already given up on her. This is another disgusting act of incest by Ruth which she sees as “love.” Her breaking point comes when Freddie points out that breastfeeding her son at the age of twelve is wrong and strange. Her love then takes a crazy turn as she begins to take comfort in emotionless things like goldfish and other flowers (11). The destructiveness of

As a young child, Hagar was given everything by Pilate and Reba resulting in Hagar’s inability to accept rejection (307). She became so obsessive over Milkman that she literally starts loving him to death. Morrison writes, “She loved nothing in the world except this women’s son, wanted him alive more than anybody, but hadn’t the least bit control over the predator inside her. Totally taken over by her anaconda love, she had no self-left, no fears, no wants, no intelligence that was her own” (136-137). She becomes so desperate for Milkman’s love that she cannot function without him. Anything that Milkman finds interest in, she does as well. Hagar’s love for Milkman becomes destructive in the sense that she attempts to kill Milkman for not loving her back with an ice pick (126). Guitar explains to her that you cannot own a human being like she is trying to do with Milkman. In a final attempt to win Milkman over, she thinks that becoming obsessive over her physical appearance will get him. She becomes a woman obsessed with her beauty, but does not realize that she does not even possess a soul anymore. She realizes that nothing will win Milkman over and ends up dying of a broken heart. Her love is not only destructive in the sense that she attempts to kill Milkman, but because she ends her life as