Guitar In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

Unexpected breaches of trust are a recurring theme in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. For example, Milkman attempts to plunder Pilate’s house, despite his close connection with and adulation for her, to cater to his selfish desire for gold. Similarly, Guitar nearly murders Milkman due to his delusions and his own ambitions to obtain the gold. However, one instance of this idea is arguably the most prominent: Macon’s discovery of Dr. Foster’s foibles, and the incestuous relationship between Dr. Foster and Macon’s wife, Ruth. Through the drastic changes in Macon’s personality this leads to, this subplot demonstrates the effects of a betrayal of trust.

In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, an African American man named Macon Dead III, also known as Milkman, struggles to find the truth behind his name and background. Milkman and his broken family live on the Southside of Michigan. His mother, Ruth Foster, suffers from the lack of intimacy with her husband and uses her son as a coping mechanism. His father, Macon Dead Jr., is a materialistic man who does not want to endure the same fate as his father, Macon Dead Sr.(who had been murdered for his land, Lincoln’s Heaven.) Neither of the parents give his two sisters, Magdalena and First Corinthians, attention, leading them to envy Milkman for being the center of their world.

Within society, materialism is often associated with success and prosperity. In the novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, there was a pattern of how even though the most successful characters were also the most materialistic, they were not always the happiest. Two characters that were at either end of the scale of materialism were Macon and Pilate. These very different lifestyles that Macon and Pilate lived, Macon being heavily materialistic and Pilate not at all, caused them to develop different attitudes that were influenced heavily by materialism. Through the analysis of the mystery of Pilate’s and Macon’s lifestyles, Morrison illustrates that materialism destroys people and prevents them from achieving freedom.

Certain aspects of life can be explained in full through a single phrase. A proverb. In this case: “like father, like son.” In the novel Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, Macon Dead III, informally known as Milkman, develops relationships with many other character in his town in Michigan. The most important of which is his relationship with Hagar, who loves Milkman.

Hagar, Pilate, Macon Jr., and Guitar all vie for Milkman’s commitment pulling in him to achieve their goals for him. To Milkman, his life seems to lack an identity in which to base his life’s direction and purpose, “…trying to make up his mind whether to go forward or to turn back. The decision he made would be extremely important, but the way in which he made the decision would be careless, haphazard, and uninformed.” (Morrison, 69-70). Unwilling to commit himself to any one goal, Milkman rejects these options, choosing instead to continue his aimless drifting, cutting himself off from the people who care for him and the African-American community.

In the Toni Morrison’s critically-claimed novel, Song of Solomon, the protagonist, Milkman, goes on a journey to uncover his “people.” Macon, Milkman, Dead III has no identity, ambition, or passion for he is lost and has no idea who he is or what he wants. As Milkman discovers his family’s mysterious and largely unknown past, Milkman discovers something much more: himself. Only through his investigation into his father’s family does Milkman finally find his lost identity.

1. Beloved, the novel by African-American writer Toni Morrison is a collection of memories of the characters presented in the novel. Most characters in the novel are living with repressed painful memories and hence they are not able to move ahead in their lives and are somewhere stuck. The novel, in a way, becomes a guide for people with painful memories because it is in a way providing solutions to get rid of those memories and move ahead in life. The novel is divided into three parts; each part becomes a step in the healing ritual of painful repressed memories.

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.

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.

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).

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.

In Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, Milkman’s name is significant because he has served as the beginning of many of the conflicts that occur throughout the novel, such as between his father and mother to some extent, and the longer he lives the longer these conflicts are “nurtured.” The name Milkman references the fact that at the beginning of life people are cared for by the milk from their mothers, helping them develop into strong, healthy human being. Much in this same way, Milkman is the creator of many of the book’s internal conflicts between characters, such as between himself and Hagar, his mother and father, and even his mother and Hagar. Macon, Milkman’s father, detested the thought of having a third child and tried to force Ruth,

Milkman eyes are warm and brown and can tell who she is by looking into her eyes. Reba and Pilate Dead try to comfort Hagar by disagreeing with her thoughts about Milkman’s likes and dislikes because she does not have to compare herself to a Caucasian female. With this in mind, Hagar Dead is not aware of her self-worth because she is too caught up in trying to impress a men that does not want her. Not along she should not trying to impress a man at all. A man

She was the sign of misfortune in the entire novel: deprived of sexual interaction with her husband for twenty years, delivering Milkman as a consequence of a shock from a frightening accident, and withstanding the physical violence of her husband even in front of their children. She was never respected or seriously loved by any male characters in the novel—Milkman was ashamed and careless of her, Macon her Husband hated her, and even her father was somewhat embarrassed by their intimacy which Ruth intended. Ironically, she was the daughter of the great Doctor who has a street named after him and the wife of Macon Dead, who is the richest person in town. This contrast emphasizes the tragedy of the character that despite her superior or seemingly advantageous status quo, she still led a miserable life. Morrison quoted that she started the book as an attempt to shatter some of the common stereotypes the 1960s has brought to African American community, which, as she reckons, has left out an enormous portion of the racial character for over-emphasizing the beauty and strength and thereby

Names have always held power in literature; whether it is the defeated giant Polyphemus cursing Odysseus due to him pridefully announcing his name or how the true name of the Hebrew god was considered so potent that the word was forbidden. In fact, names were given power in tales dating all the way back to the 24th century B.C.E. when the goddess Isis became as strong as the sun god Ra after tricking him into revealing his true name. And in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, names have a much stronger cultural significance; and in the case of the character known as “Beloved”, her name is essentially her whole existence. Morrison shows the true power a name holds in African American literature through the character known as “Beloved”, as her role in the story becomes defined by the name she is given and changes in the final moments of the chapter.