AP Literature Précis
"Song of Solomon" -Toni Morrison
Chapter 8- The Peacock Symbolizes a Sense of Pride (or the Ego).
Albino Peacock
The Ego
Lack of Flight
Chapter 9- Greedy Minds: Oppression Causes Violence
In her coming-of-age novel Song of Solomon (1977), Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Literature Nobel Prize, states that someone's constant oppression of others will kill things and make people "[want] to kill you" (213). Morrison makes this evident through the use of urinating on someone/something as a sign of possession (see Porter's drunken rage and Macon's greed), the death of the plants out of season after Milkman peed on them (see the flowers and the sapling), and Lena's rage toward young Milkman after he accidentally pees on her (she actually moves to premeditated murder). This assertion of dominance, especially over women, is acknowledged in order to make Milkman "the line [Lena] will step across" (214), and to show that Lena even tried to kill him "once or twice" (213). Morrison establishes a new view of Milkman with her readers through Lena's tone of rebellion and anger by bringing up how the oppressed women in the Dead household see him; a very disgusting prominent figure who has surely "pissed [his] last in this house" (216).