Song of Solomon
Aliah Bowman
Enduring Seven Days
Two Sides of the Same Coin
Nobel Prize winning Toni Morrison, in her critically aclaimed Song of Solomon, assert the idea of double-sidedness and secrecy among female characters such as Corinthians who tells her mother that she works as a secretary when in fact she is "Miss Graham's maid"(187). She is double-sided in the idea that she has the persona she would like her family to see and her real self, and "she [knows] she [is] ashamed of [it], that she would have to add. . . to the . . . [secrets]"(194). Along with having a lower-status job, she also decides to keep her relationship with Henry Porter, an eldery black man who lives on the sothside, a secret from her family. While this may be more of a social status matter, the fact that she is a middle-age woman lying about her life, even if it's her love life, helps the concept of the double-sided coin that is woman. Morrison's intended audience is women, and through the troubles of Corinthians' secretive life she helps to persuade woman to be more truthful about their life, even if they risk receiving criticism for it. She uses and downhearted tone to show they struggles of Corinthian's double life.