Picture taken for Project
(Tree stump)
Explanation
While a tree stump may from a purely objective point of view appear no more relevant to the idea of Religious and Mythological allegory/allusion, than butter as a representation of tying shoes, it is. The reason for that is that when looking down at a stump one can take in it's many parts, the obvious bark of the exterior and then the slowly formed middle mass that really does all the work. That's a bit of how the allegory within Song of Solomon works, there's the obvious biblical allusion being dropped anytime characters whose names are literally words from the bible waltz their way into the scene, and then there's the other deeper allusions and referencing that seems subtle and all that more sublime. This is how the relate-ability works with the novel as well because it all plays into Morrison's preference, of actually deeply reading her work rather than skimming, the surface of the novel places several obvious allusions. Which have overall little bearing on the actual occurrences and actions that the characters go through, much like how the bark doesn't do the work of pumping the important nutrients around the tree, it just provides a nice exterior on an otherwise more integral piece.