Song of Solomon
Macon Dead and Milkman; father-son-similarities
Macon Dead and Milkman; father-son-similarities
In Song of Solomon (1977), Toni Morrison successfully parallels Macon Dead and Milkman, connecting the two as "Milkman tries to figure what is true" (75) and interestingly connects them in an ironic and unexpected yet expected way that ultimately leads the story to shift to another direction in which many may not be prepared for. Morrison develops a creation of character in Milkman chronologically as he begins to spend more time with his father, thus resulting in the many traits of Macon Dead such as his keen sense of ownership towards his mother an example including his statement of "You touch her again, one more time, and I'll kill you." (67). Using special dialogue techniques to showcase Milkman's constantly changing personality, Morrison challenges the theme of struggling to find one's identity; especially for Milkman, he eagerly hopes to not be like his "stranger-like" (74) father and his vanishing-air-like-mother. Morrison continues to use dialogue back and forth between different characters, however, the dialogue Morrison uses also allows Milkman to further struggle with his identity constantly, mainly mirroring into his father's footsteps.
How Macon begins to take-off for flight
In Song of Solomon (1977), written by Nobel prize winning author Tony Morrison, Morrison presents different clues and foreshadows certain events that represents the flight that will possibly be taken by Macon Dead. With flight's relation with independence, Macon depicts signs of independence such as when Macon came to a realization that he was in charge of his own self "He was his own director- relieving himself when he wanted to, stopping for cold beer when he was thirsty, and even in a seventy-five-dollar car the sense of power was strong" (260), when Macon begins to leave the reality by forgetting what day it was ""Oh. I forgot what day it was." Milkman smiled."" (261) and his preparation for flight as he drops and removes items that kept him grounded such as his "suitcase with the Scotch, the shirts, the space for bags of gold, snap-brim hat, his tie, his shirt, his three-piece suit, his socks, and his shoes." (277)
Morrison includes these small clues in order to inform the reader that Macon is in the process of leaving the ground and taking flight into another realm of reality. This chapter gives audience another reason to continue reading, allowing readers to slowly see the process of flight taking place as Milkman leaves the ground.
White Peacock
Award winning Nobel Prize novel Song of Solomon published in 1977 and written by Toni Morrison heavily emphasis the theme of flight vs. flightlessness with the use of a symbolic bird, the peacock. Morrison represents different themes of vanity and greed paralleling to the white peacock in characters such as when Hagar begins to "want everything" (310) from "getting her hair done" to "new clothes" (310-311) in order to gain Milkman's love; Hagar relies towards a more vanity-like personality, falling in love with materialism. This sense of love for materialism leads to a lack in flight just as the peacock lacks flight because of all the excess glamour on the peacock. Just as Guitar states, in order to fly "you got to give up the shit that weighs you down" (179). Morrison shows the gradual removal of the items, worries, etc that weighs Milkman down, foreshadowing the changes of Milkman and the ultimate result of Milkman taking flight. Morrison creates a symbol of the white peacock to combine different characters in the story and depict the different effects of the materialistic peacock and its disability to taking flight.