CHAPTER II
INDIVIDUAL VOICES
In The Bluest Eye and Song of Solomon, Morrison provides a voice to African-American children, and men, and women. In these two books, she presents individuals trying to find their self-identity and their heritage within the community. Morrison demonstrates the effects of the traditional culture’s beliefs and values on African-Americans.
The Bluest Eye
Morrison, in The Bluest Eye, provides a voice for the major characters, Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola, who are children between eleven and thirteen years old. The characters focus on a string of events that occurred at the Breedlove’s house before the story begins. When Morrison wrote this novel, very few novels provided a voice to children of any ethnic background.
Morrison provides a voice to those that have been silenced through representing two systems of language-codes of recognition and imagined codes. The first of these is the “codes of recognition that are inherent in ‘inherent language’” (Peach 12-13). These codes are the “inherited Euro-American language [that] organizes and structures its culture’s relations with the world so as to exclude African-Americans” (Peach 13). By using the power of educational and social institutions, the patriarchal white culture utilizes these recognition codes to exclude anyone who is not a member of their inner group. One of these codes is the ‘white norms’ imposed upon the African-Americans like the definition of beauty, and the norms for love and marriage.
Another code is embodied in the “white definition of blackness, which is associated with violence, poverty, dirt and lack of education” (Peach 35). The narrator states, “[Pecola] knew them. They were the codes and touchstones of the world, capable of translation and possession” (The Bluest Eye 41). The narrator’s statement presents the depth of the embodiment of these codes in society, the family, and school.
The second are the imagined codes, which are “the Utopian characterization of a culture” (Peach 13), primarily the upper and middle class, white American ideal of the perfect community, which are often at odds with the real situation created by the inherent language codes. The characters internalize these imagined codes and develop a sense of lost roots, community, identity, ancestors, freedom, and innocence in the process.
Morrison presents several levels of victimization through her concern “with the ideological nature of language” (Peach 84). The ideology of language is the “staple of daily living, embodied in language and in social institutions such as the school, the family and the media” (Peach 35). Morrison’s quest takes an ethical stand against the traditional values of beauty in The Bluest Eye when the narrator states “the most destructive idea in the history of human thought” (95) is the traditional conception of beauty. Claudia makes several statements about the ideology of the community, “And all the time we knew that Maureen Peal was not the Enemy and not worthy of such intense hatred. The Thing to fear was the Thing that made her beautiful and not us” (The Bluest Eye 62). The Thing is the traditional culture’s ideology of physical beauty, which is blonde hair and blue eyes. In order to be beautiful, a person needed to have the ideal qualities, and if they not the ideal, the features are equated with ugliness. Claudia seems too aware of the ideology that is represented in the white dolls; even as a child, she just didn’t know what to call it, so she called it The Thing; later she calls it The Gaze. In this novel, “The Gaze is a function of patriarchal culture and has the effect of fetishizing and/or commodifying women” (Middleton xi). The Gaze reduces the individual to an object in someone else’s reality and takes away the individual’s sense of self and potential to be. Morrison dismantles the traditional value of beauty when Claudia disfigures and mangles the white dolls.
The ideological nature of language embodies the traditional values of beauty in objects in the characters’ worlds. One object used repeatedly is the mirror because it “represented only white standards of beauty” (Hill-Rigney 35). The narrator states, “Long hours she [Pecola] sat looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of ugliness” (The Bluest Eye 39). Pecola’s imaginary friend states, “How many times a minute are you going to look inside that old thing” (The Bluest Eye 150) referring to Pecola’s mirror and “I’d just like to do something else besides watch you stare in the mirror” (The Bluest Eye 150). Pecola carries her mirror everywhere because her mirror is a representation of a mirror into the human condition. Morrison’s novels themselves become a kind of mirror that expresses the effect of unvoiced dominant ideology on the people. Morrison wants the traditional culture to see its true reflection in the mirrors, to see how the ideals of beauty affect and distort African-Americans’ perceptions of themselves. By doing this, Morrison reclaims and reasserts the value of African-American culture in America and expresses the true dominant culture’s methods of oppression.
Morrison also uses American myths to demystify the traditional concept of beauty. In the opening sentence, the narrator provides three different physical structures of the myth of Dick and Jane:
Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty.Here is the family. Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane lives in the green-and-white house. They are very happy. See Jane. She has a red dress. She wants to play. Who will play with Jane? See the cat. It goes meow-meow. Come and play. Come play with Jane. The kitten will not play. See Mother. Mother is very nice. Mother, will you play with Jane? Mother laughs. Laugh, Mother, laugh. See Father. He is big and strong. Father, will you play with Jane? Father is smiling. Smile, Father,smile. See the dog. Bowwow goes the dog.Do you want to play with Jane? See the dog run. Run, dog, run. Look, look. Here comes a friend. The friend will play with Jane. They will play a good game. Play, Jane, play. (The Bluest Eye 7)
The simple repetitive sentence structures and the simple vocabulary mimic the way the recognition and Utopian codes are presented in institutionalized reading programs so as to indoctrinate under the disguise of teaching reading.
Morrison casts three African-American families in this Dick and Jane scenario. Maureen Peal’s family and Junior’s family represent the traditional ruling class. Claudia says of Maureen, who is the new girl at Claudia, Frieda, and Junior’s school:
A high-yellow dream child with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back. She was rich, at least by our standards, as much as the richest of the white girls, swaddled in comfort and care. The quality of her clothes threatened to derange Frieda and me [. . .] She enchanted the entire school. (The Bluest Eye 52)
Claudia’s statement provides the impression that everyone adored Maureen and wanted to be like her because she represents the traditional culture’s ideals. Junior and his middle-class parents live next to the middle school Claudia attends, the location and appearance being a mark of status and prestige.
The second family is the MacTeer family-Claudia, Frieda, and their mother and father-who represent the working class in the community. Claudia states, “Grown-ups talk in tired, edgy voices about Zick’s Coal Company and take us along in the evening” (The Bluest Eye 12). The MacTeers are blue-collar factory workers. Claudia, also tells us: “Our house is old, cold, and green” (The Bluest Eye 12) a color similar to Dick and Jane’s green and white house, but lacking the warm red door and the laughing, smiling parents. The MacTeer family does have a house to live in, which makes them better off than the Breedloves.
The Breedlove family-Pecola and Sammy and their parents, Cholly and Pauline-represent the exploited class. The family lives in an old storefront divided into the living room, the bedroom, the kitchen in the back, and a toilet bowl. The narrator refers to the family: “They lived there because they were poor and black” (The Bluest Eye 34). Many negative implications can be made about the family’s name. It suggests that the family should breed love, but, since Cholly impregnates his own daughter, the family, instead, breeds violence and self-destruction. Whatever Morrison’s intent with the name, she portrays the three African-American families in terms of the traditional dominant culture’s mythology, but represents the reality of the economic and social class levels that exist even in America today. Through the juxtaposition of myth and reality, she underscores the impossible nature of the dominant ideology and exposes the hideous indoctrination methods that create a desire for the unattainable while representing it as the norm.
Morrison also uses a second myth, the Shirley Temple persona of having blonde hair with blue eyes as the ideal beauty marks of traditional culture. The film industry, and Hollywood perpetuate the Shirley Temple persona, who is a child star that MGM turned into America’s little sweetheart and the ideal child. The traditional American culture completely bought into the Shirley Temple persona as being the ideal of that culture, and this myth is still present and perpetuated in the twenty-first century. Many of the commercial industries followed a similar pattern; for example, until recently the dolls for children all have had blonde hair and blue eyes and the commercialization of only these ‘ideal’ dolls excluded all other hair types, eye color, and skin color.
Frieda, Claudia, and Pecola are different in their acceptance of this persona. Frieda and Pecola believe completely in the traditional values of beauty because they “had loving conversations about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was” (The Bluest Eye 19), showing that the girls had been taken in and consumed by the traditional values of beauty, promoting it by their actions. Claudia tells the reader, “I couldn’t join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley” (The Bluest Eye 19). Claudia does not tell Frieda and Pecola her true feelings; instead she says, “I like Jane Withers. They gave me a puzzling look and decided I am incomprehensible, and continued their reminiscing about old squint-eyed Shirley” (The Bluest Eye 19). Claudia tells the reader she felt “unsullied hatred” (The Bluest Eye 19) towards Shirley Temple and the white dolls that did not look like her. The girls’ different beliefs show how false myths such as the Shirley Temple persona can distort reality and affect those caught up in the disillusion.
Most of the African-American community in this story believe the traditional values of beauty because they are too “corrupted by the values of the white culture” (Otten 9) to believe otherwise. This is shown when Frieda and Claudia’s mother buy white dolls for Christmas for their daughters. The dolls are supposed to be a big, loving present, but the dolls only bring out hatred in Claudia. Claudia makes derogatory comments about the white dolls and destroys them by taking their legs, arms, and heads, off and cutting their hair. The child is frustrated because she does not see dolls that look like her or anyone else that she knows, and does not understand why. Claudia’s frustration turns to anger and destruction because she cannot get an answer to why there are no African-American dolls. Her actions represent a healthy respect for her own identity that results in a symbolic dismantling of the dominant ideology. As an adult, however, Claudia tells the reader, “But the dismembering of the dolls was not the true horror. The truly horrifying thing was the transference of the same impulse to little white girls” (The Bluest Eye 22). The traditional values of beauty are not only self-destructive to those like Pecola and Frieda who can never meet the ideals of the myth, but are also very destructive because they sometimes create violent tendencies toward those hapless blondes who do meet the ideals just through the accidence of birth.
Claudia’s rejection of the traditional values is presented through her dismantling of the dolls. Claudia’s destruction of the blonde hair and blue-eyed dolls is an example of the narrative destruction of the traditional values of beauty in American culture. Commercialism in America excluded African-Americans until late in the twentieth century, but the ideals of beauty portrayed in The Bluest Eye are still persuasive, and Morrison is anxious to show how self-destructive belief in these ideals can be. Pecola is completely destroyed by the beliefs and values of the traditional culture. According to the narrator, “The damage was total” (The Bluest Eye 158) in Pecola. Claudia, however, is a survivor of the traditional culture’s beliefs and values because she refuses to surrender to them as an adult and even as a child.
Claudia’s and the other characters’ perspective and memory play a major role in subverting the linear and chronological time of this novel. The narrator begins at the end of the story, makes several circular moves and returns to the end. Pecola’s tragedy is told from three different narrators: one from Claudia as a child, another from Claudia as an adult, and a third from an omniscient narrator. As a grown African-American woman, Claudia is telling the story in retrospect about her past and heritage, and she tries to bring in the feelings that she had as a child about Pecola from an adult’s perspective. This provides the reader with an outsider’s perspective of Pecola’s tragedy but does not explore Pecola’s inner feelings or thoughts. The omniscient narrator provides the reader with some of Pecola’s inner thoughts, but Morrison does not give her a first person narration, including her feelings about the traumatic events in her life.
Claudia’s narration presents Pecola as being silenced and victimized by her environment on several layers. On the first level, Pecola is physically and mentally victimized by her father at home. A home is supposed to be a safe place for a person, but not in this novel. In the very beginning of the story the narrator states, “Pecola was having her father’s baby” (The Bluest Eye 9). This makes it perfectly clear that her father raped her, the worst thing that her father could do to her, but she does not realize this. The only reference she makes to the event is when Pecola’s ‘imaginary friend’ states, “That was horrible, wasn’t it? (The Bluest Eye 156). Pecola replies, “Yes” (The Bluest Eye 156). The narrator tells the reader that Pecola’s father, Cholly, saw his actions as an act of love, which suggests that insanity not genetic, but environmental because of Pecola’s insanity at the end. Her insanity can be linked to this horrible event and others that occurred to her.
The narrator tells the reader that Pecola’s home life with her mother and father consisted of alcohol and fights. When Pecola is talking about her father and mother, she states, “All he did was get drunk and beat her up” (The Bluest Eye 153). When Pecola’s mother, Pauline is remembering the past, she states, “Cholly commenced to getting meaner and meaner and wanted to fight me all of the time” (The Bluest Eye 94). Pauline “sustains the misery of some silent mothers” (The Bluest Eye 47) because she acts as though nothing has happened and does not do anything about the tragedy. During Pecola’s conversation with her ‘imaginary friend’ she states, “She didn’t even believe me when I told her” (The Bluest Eye 155). When Pecola went to Pauline’s work to get the laundry, she spilled the pie on the floor and Pauline violently abused Pecola in front of Claudia and Frieda. The little girl that lives in the house where Pauline cooks asks her who Pecola is. Pauline answers, “Don’t worry none” (The Bluest Eye 87), which provides more evidence she apparently does not care about Pecola. Pecola surmised that the reason she is abused at home and ridiculed at school is that she is African-American, which she feels the community equates with ugliness.
Pecola is “victimized into insanity” (Bjork 163) by the traditional values of beauty. Morrison does not provide any other path or choice for Pecola except insanity, which is parallel to the African-Americans’ lack of choices in traditional American culture. In an interview Morrison states, “Pecola surrendered completely to the ‘master narrative’ of traditional American literature. There is no way for her back into society. She can only escape into fantasy and to madness” (qtd. in Moyers). Pecola’s surrender to the victimization reflects some of the African-Americans that surrender completely to the traditional beliefs and values such as buying the ‘ideal’ dolls.
Pecola’s insanity is represented by her conversation with another character towards the end of the novel when she looks into a mirror and believes that her eyes are blue. The other character is never clearly identified. The creation of this anomalous character is Morrison’s technique for demonstrating the extent of Pecola’s victimization by the traditional values of beauty. The reader wonders who she is talking to: is it an imaginary friend or her dead child? The language and statements used in their conversation suggests the person is a child, but Pecola calls the person her “best friend” (The Bluest Eye 152). Morrison seems to show that Pecola deals with all the terrible things that had happened to her by creating an alternate reality, which manifests itself in the persona of an imaginary friend, as a device for coping with the objective reality of her life.
When Pecola asks this imaginary friend, “Why didn’t I know you before?” the friend replies to her “You didn’t need me before” (The Bluest Eye 152). This conversation suggests that Pecola has changed. She has lost touch completely with reality and begun to build a fantasy world to answer her own needs. Pecola asks, “You don’t talk to anybody. You don‘t go to school. And nobody talks to you. I wonder if she [Pauline] even sees you” (The Bluest Eye 153). Because Pecola is the only person who can see and converse with the character, the reader understands this character exists only in her imagination
Another possibility is that Pecola could be talking to her dead child because the language used in the conversation is childlike and because Pecola’s dead child would probably not be seen by the other characters. The imaginary friend threatens not to come again to see Pecola because the friend did not get her way. This threat suggests a pouty, young child of possibly five to seven years old. The idea that this person also believes Pecola’s eyes are blue brings up many other questions that cannot be concretely answered because the reader is not given enough information about the identity of the person Pecola is talking to. The reader does not know exactly how much time has past since her baby died. The only indication that the reader is given about time is the seasons and Claudia narrating the story as an adult, so the reader knows that several years have past.
Pecola’s conversation with either an imaginary friend or her dead child is particularly interesting because it shows that people continue to treat Pecola badly at the end of the novel, but now she just considers it to be because of her blue eyes (beauty), whereas previously she suspected it was because of her ugliness. At the end of the novel the only thing that is changed is Pecola’s way of seeing and interpreting the events around her. Pecola believes that “only a miracle could relieve her” (The Bluest Eye 40) of her home life and make things different for her and her family; so she prays for a ‘miracle,’ the miracle of blue eyes. She believes that if her eyes are blue, “she herself would be different” (The Bluest Eye 40). Pecola believes that having blue eyes would make her beautiful and lovable, which is why she prays for blue eyes.
After she gets no results from all of her praying, she visits Soaphead’s Church and asks him to give her blue eyes. He says he cannot help her, but he gives her a prophecy. He gives her some meat and tells her to give it to the dog on the porch. If nothing happens, then God will not grant her wish. If something strange happens, then God will grant her wish. Soaphead knows that something will happen because he poisoned the meat. The reader knows Pecola truly believes Soaphead has the power to change her eye color because Pecola’s attitude changes after her visit to Soaphead. In the next scene, she is looking into the mirror and believes that her eyes are blue. Pecola’s language changes because “language is a tacit social convention shared by the members of the linguistic community” (Shaumyan 79) and she desperately wants to be a member. Pecola wants nothing more than to have her family love her and to be liked by school friends. These rather ordinary ambitions, however, are beyond Pecola’s reach because of the traditional culture. But after Soaphead’s prophecy comes true, Pecola changes her way of seeing and interpreting the events around her.
Pecola is in the position at the end of the novel to belong to the community. According to Yvonne Atkinson, “Pecola could gain entrance to her community by practicing the communal rules of discourse, but she did not learn these rules at home and so she is lost” (17). The reason for Pecola not learning anything at home and possibly in school is that the adults “issue orders without providing information” (The Bluest Eye 12) to the children. The children are unable to learn because they have not been shown how to learn or to accomplish self-identity within the community or at home. The community cannot teach the young people how to belong because it is still learning how to become a community.
On a second level, Pecola is victimized by some of the people in the community. The community stigmatized and labeled Pecola because her father raped her and she had his baby. A few direct incidents show Pecola being tormented by other kids at school and by other people in the community. One incident occurs after school, “A group of boys was circling and holding at bay a victim, Pecola Breedlove” (The Bluest Eye 55). Pecola becomes a scapegoat for ugliness in these boys’ eyes, when the narrator states, “They dance a macabre ballet around the victim, whom, for their own sake, they were prepared to sacrifice to the flaming pit” (The Bluest Eye 55). Many of the children treat Pecola this way because she is African-American and poor.
Junior is another schoolmate who victimizes Pecola. He invites her to come and play with him; then he lures her into his house on the pretense of showing her his cat. Junior throws his scared cat in Pecola’s face and then blames the cat’s injuries on her. Junior’s mother, Geraldine reacts irrationally to Pecola, stating, “Get out. You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house” (The Bluest Eye 75). Pecola feels this happened because she does not have blue eyes and she is African-American. This scene is a reflection of the Dick and Jane story told at the beginning of the text. The children playing, the cat, and the mother are similar to the Dick and Jane myth, but the outcome is not. Pecola did not have fun playing in the ideal Dick and Jane house; in fact, she was terrorized by Junior and he “was laughing and running around the room” (The Bluest Eye 73).
Pecola did not find a safe place at home or in the outside world, so she retreated into the world in her mind. The reader learns at the beginning of the novel that Pecola is “a girl who had no place to go” (The Bluest Eye 17). In an interview Morrison reflects on why Pecola is in the position that she is at the end of the novel:
She had no exits, no one to help her. She was isolated. She was manipulated. She was despised. Those are classic causes of disassociated personalities. The people who don’t live happily ever after are the ones who are silenced and those were the stories I wanted to tell. (Morrison, Special Issue)
This explains why Morrison did not leave Pecola any other path nor options and why she uses non-traditional narratives. Pecola is a symbol of all the African-Americans who have no options in traditional American culture.
On a third level, Pecola’s victimization represents the effects on African-Americans by the traditional American values of beauty. Morrison exposes and demystifies the traditional fairy tales and myths by using a mythic structure of her own to express the effects of the traditional values of beauty on African-Americans. The narrator states:
They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly. [. . .] they had each accepted it without question. The master had said, You are ugly people. They had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; [they] saw, in fact, support for it leering at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance. (The Bluest Eye 34)
Because Morrison cannot delineate the exact development of the norms of beauty in her novel, she uses the mythic structure to underscore the idea that African-Americans have been compliant in allowing the dominant culture to define beauty in a way that excludes them. This alternate myth gently reminds African-Americans that some time in the misty past they acquiesced to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Roman model of beauty, thus forcing them to despise themselves. Morrison’s depiction of Claudia shows a different path is possible. It is possible to reject those standards of beauty. Choice is possible. Claudia’s horror at transferring her hatred of the dolls to the actual little white girls is a warning that the rejection of the traditional standards of beauty can lead to undeserved racial violence, but Claudia’s characterization represents the natural, healthy respect one has for one’s own identity. She is the primary character who rejects the mythic acquiescence of her forefathers. Claudia’s actions suggest that the historical moment has come for African-Americans to free themselves from the ugly myth and create a beauty myth of their own.
The community’s behavior and responsibilities play a major role in Pecola’s victimization. The children learn from observing and imitating the adults around them at home and in the community. Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola learn different lessons at home or in the community. Claudia states, “Outdoor, we knew, was the real terror of life” (The Bluest Eye 17). The children are frightened by the community’s actions and they have every right to be because of the oppression and harassment they receive from the outside world. The outside world reflects the opinion of the traditional fairy tales and myths. According to Jan Furman, the community’s “values and beliefs shape the background against which the individual’s behavior is assessed and defined” (72) and this is what many of the characters do. Junior’s mother’s comments represent how the traditional ideology shapes the traditional culture’s perspective of African-Americans and other races.
Morrison demystifies the language to provide the truth about white, middle class ideals and values in American literature. The ideology of the traditional culture is so embedded into the language of the school, the family, and the media that many people did not see and still do not see that there are many types of people and experiences, not just one-master narrative. The narrator unveils the horror created by the traditional ideology: “Pecola yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment” (The Bluest Eye 158). This suggests that the African-Americans cannot give in and accept the traditional values of beauty because there are several different types of beauty and all should be considered in American culture.
Morrison makes many indirect and direct statements about language and words. Heinz suggests that Morrison’s language has “no bottom and . . . no top, just circles and circles of sorrows” (Heinz 123). A direct example is how Claudia and Frieda’s “words move in lofty spirals” (The Bluest Eye 16), which their speech pattern presents as a child’s perspective. Morrison shows the difficulty of standard American English for some of the other children when the narrator states that Polly “was enchanted by numbers and depressed by words” (The Bluest Eye 89). Polly is not the only character to have trouble with words. The narrator provides a reason for the children having trouble with words because, as Claudia states, the adults do not have conversations with the children. This leaves the children to converse only with each other. They know only what they have been taught or have been able to figure out on their own.
Another direct reference to Claudia’s language is the “up and down cadenced rhythm of mourning” (William 58). Claudia and Frieda are mournful because they feel they failed Pecola: the Marigold seeds they planted for her had not grown. They feel guilty and blame each other because the seeds did not grow: “This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruits it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce, and say the victim had no right to live” (The Bluest Eye 160). The symbolism is that Pecola is a flower-something beautiful-which cannot grow because the soil, the definition of beauty, will not let her flourish. They are responsible in a way because in the past of the community they acquiesced to the standards of beauty. This also relates to the African-Americans being placed on American soil without their permission and suggests the soil is bad because it is not their homeland. It also refers to the African-Americans who died before making it to America on the slave ships.
Another reason Claudia and Frieda feel guilty as grown women is that they hardly spoke to Pecola after her insanity. Claudia tells the reader “we saw her sometimes, Frieda and I-after the baby came too soon and died. After the gossip and the slow wagging of heads. She was so sad to see” (The Bluest Eye 158). Claudia still feels guilty as an adult about past events because she refers to their regret of the dead flower seeds. She states, “We were wrong, of course, but it doesn’t matter. It’s too late” (The Bluest Eye 160). They had true innate feelings that Pecola was beautiful, but could not undo the weight of the beauty myth.
All of Morrison’s narrative techniques provide a voice to African-American children and women. Claudia narrates the story from an adult woman looking back into her past, and an omniscient narrator provides inner details of the characters that Claudia cannot. Through her narrative techniques, Morrison presents the ideology of the traditional culture’s value of beauty as being destructive and oppressing for African-Americans’ culture. The African-American child is the most affected by the commercialization of the Shirley Temple persona in America. The effect upon Pecola is insanity and the effect upon Claudia is the loss of her innocence from observing the events that had happened to Pecola. Morrison asks the reader to identify with Claudia, to seize the moment to reject the destructive monolithic definition of beauty promoted by the dominant culture, to take responsibility for freeing all those who can never conform to those standards, and to establish inclusive conceptions of beauty that will provide soil for all the flowers to grow and flourish.
Song of Solomon
In the Song of Solomon, Morrison uses Milkman’s journey, the characters’ names, and identity to provide a voice for the silenced middle class African-American male. The protagonist, Macon [Milkman] Dead III, is on a quest to find his self-identity and family’s history because his present life is unsatisfying to him. The narrator states, “He was bored. Everybody bored him. The city was boring” (Song of Solomon 107). This leads him on his quest for his family’s history and heritage because he does not want to live the life that his father and mother live. The narrator states, “He just wanted to beat a path away from his parents’ past, which is also their present and which is threatening to become his present as well” (Song of Solomon 180). This leads to the many levels of Milkman’s search for his self-identity and family heritage.
First, on the surface Milkman searches for his self-identity and background within his community on Lake Superior, then in Danville, Pennsylvania, and Shalimar, Virginia. This novel is different from her other novels because it is narrated from a male character’s perspective, but he questions his self-identity as the female characters do. The narrator states, “He wondered if there was anyone in the world who liked him. Liked him for himself alone” (Song of Solomon 79). This statement represents the humanistic quality, and it suggests that all people want to be liked for who they are. Milkman came to terms with his individual identity and history because he realizes that “there was nothing he could do about it. [. . .] You can’t do the past over” (Song of Solomon 76). The concept of knowing the past in order to be able to forget the past and move into the future is presented in all of Morrison’s novels.
On a few occasions during his quest, Milkman questions what it means to be a man. One incident occurs when Morrison sets up a moral dilemma, casting the question in terms of the fairy tales or mythic structures she often uses to explain the accepted “norms”: “He was a man who saw another man hit a helpless person. And he interfered. Wasn’t that the history of the world? Isn’t that what men did? Protected the frail and confronted the King of the Mountain?” (Song of Solomon 75). Milkman does not have the backbone to stand up to another man until he sees his father enact violence against his mother. He knows his mother’s side of the story and feels he must defend her. This is his first assertion of self-identity and his manhood. Later, his father gives him background information that explains Macon and Ruth’s actions, but his story is different from Ruth’s. Macon tells his son, “If you want to be a whole man, you have to deal with the whole truth” (Song of Solomon 70). Morrison forces both Milkman and the reader to combine the two stories together to establish a whole story. A whole man or woman cannot be whole until he/she achieves unity between both the past and presentand the perspectives involved. Milkman learns what it is be a whole man at the end of his journey because he gives up his material identity and gains a spiritual identity.
On his road trip as he visits people who knew his family in the south, Milkman’s thoughts are that “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” (Song of Solomon 261). He feels free and nobody is in charge of his life, but himself. This is only an illusion because towards the end of the novel, he discovers that a lot of the things Guitar has been saying are true, that Milkman has no control over certain aspects of his life because of his skin color. He believed he had not felt the effects of racism or oppression until he left the serenity of his community. When Milkman began his journey to find his ancestral roots, he thought that it held the key to his liberation. He learns that the communal and mythical values of his ancestor’s world prevail over individualism and materialism. He learns to be materialist from his father’s actions and he learns his ancestors’ world from Aunt Pilate and his road trip to the south. When Milkman adopts his ancestors’ beliefs and ideology instead of his father’s, he arrives at a more complete understanding of what his journey meant and of what it means to be a whole man.
Milkman’s search for his identity leads to the privilege of naming people and things, a privilege African-Americans did not enjoy under slavery. Providing easily remembered English names in place of unfamiliar African ones stripped the slaves of individual identity and self-respect, providing a key tool for exploration and oppression. In giving Macon the power to name, Morrison asserts the importance of the act in establishing individual and social identity and underscores the deep ties of the African-American culture to a spiritual tradition as a source of power.
Macon Dead I could not read or write, so he chose names from the Bible: Magdalene, First Corinthians, and Pilate Macon’s sister. Macon Dead II gives his children Biblical names, perhaps for the same reason his father did. But Macon II’s power to name is usurped by Freddie, his janitorial assistant in the rental business and an inferior in wealth. Freddie gives Milkman his nickname, when he sees Macon III nursing well beyond the age when a youngster should be nursing. As Freddie spreads the word, the community picks up the nickname to reduce the material power and status of Macon II. Milkman questions where he got his nickname, but nobody will tell him. Freddie, of course, tells everyone but Macon II and Milkman. The narrator provides a reason for the community’s silence: “Nobody both dared enough and cared enough to tell him” (Song of Solomon 17). As Milkman begins to unravel his own identity, he finally remembers how he received his nickname.
Macon I’s family name is Dead. When Milkman visits Circe, who knew the history of the Dead family, she tells him that a drunk Yankee in the Union Army gave Macon I the last name, Dead, a demonstration of how the dominant culture stripped the African-Americans of their identity by usurping the power to call them what they wanted to. Circe states, “Well, he didn’t have to keep the name. She [Macon's wife] made him. She made him keep that name” (Song of Solomon 243). Macon II provides another version of the story; he states, “Mama liked it. Liked the name. Said it was new and would wipe out the past. Wipe it all out” (Song of Solomon 54). Macon II and Pilate’s mother, Sing, who is Cherokee seems to like the name because she thought that it would provide a fresh start and put to rest the memory of the institution of slavery and of her own family’s objection to her marrying an African-American instead of a Native American.
On one level the family name represents something spiritually lost in Milkman, Macon II, Ruth, and other family members. Milkman’s spiritual loss stems from not knowing his own identity or heritage, which he regains at the end of the novel. Pilate is the only family member who has not lost her spirituality and freedom because she knows her heritage and is confident about her self-identity. Freddie’s statement, “A dead man ain’t no man. A dead man is a corpse. That’s all. A corpse” (Song of Solomon 81), underscores the fact that Milkman is neither alive nor dead: “He is psychologically and emotionally dead” (Mbalia 53). Milkman’s lack of spirituality stems from his lack of self-identity and family identity. Milkman states, “My name is Macon, remember? I’m already Dead” (Song of Solomon 118). After debating his name, Milkman concludes that his name will die when he dies. Guitar always calls him Milkman so he is reinforcing his identity at the individual level. .
Another level represents the Milkman’s physical death in the end of the novel because Milkman discovers true freedom before his death. He regains the spirituality that he lost because he gains his self-identity and a sense of family after his quest. The novel is the philosophy of how death can perhaps hold one’s peacefulness within the final “flight” to the unknown afterworld. Many implications are made about flying in the story, which begins with an acrobatic airplane flyer and ends with Milkman flying at Guitar. Milkman shows signs of reaching peacefulness in his final flight towards Guitar. Milkman states, “You want my life? You need it? Here” (Song of Solomon 337). Throughout the novel, Guitar and Milkman had conversations about white society needing to take African-Americans’ lives and vice versa. Milkman’s statement suggests that he finally saw what Guitar had seen all along. His final thoughts are “it did not matter which one of them would give up his ghost in the killing arms of his brother. For now he knew what Shalimar knew: if you surrendered to the air, you could ride it” (Song of Solomon 337). This statement represents the change in Milkman’s perspective about his self-identity, his family’s identity, and the African-American culture.
Morrison shows that Milkman’s nickname is suitable for his actions towards women. Milkman’s relationships with Hagar and Sweet represent some African-American males’ exploitation of African-American women. He “milks women, pilfering their love and giving nothing in return” (Mbalia 52). This is presented in his relationship with Hagar because for over twelve years Milkman had an affair with her and ended it. In the beginning he did ask her to marry him, but she kept telling him no, so he finally gave up and their relationship just became a habit with him. Milkman’s break up with Hagar causes her to completely lose her mind, and she tries to kill him on several occasions before she kills herself. Milkman uses Sweet the same way he does Hagar because Sweet provides comfort for Milkman when he is in the south searching for his heritage. Sweet’s fate is different from Hagar’s. Milkman justifies his attitude to women when he states, “They excuse themselves, for everything. Every job of work undone, every bill unpaid, every illness, every death was Milkman’s fault” (Song of Solomon 108). Milkman projects this attitude towards most women until the end of the story.
The one exception to this pattern of thinking about women is his attitude is his Aunt Pilate. During his journey, he meets his estranged Aunt Pilate. Milkman is intrigued by his Aunt Pilate’s knowledge and characteristics, which is why the community isolates Pilate. She is a self-sufficient single mom and her skin is darker than that of the other members of the community. Pilate’s self-sufficiency and isolation prevent her from being trapped or destroyed by the extremely decaying spiritual values of the community. Pilate’s character represents those African-Americans that did not believe or buy into the traditional culture’s ideology and values. Pilate shares her knowledge and spirit with Milkman, but it takes her death for him to truly learn what it is to be free spirited.
After learning the information about his family’s history, he returns to Solomon’s Leap with Pilate, where his perspective and attitude changes towards women when Pilate is shot. The narrator presents this: “He knew why he loved her so. Without ever leaving the ground, she could fly” (Song of Solomon 336). Before this event he had said that he did not love anyone or anything. Pilate is different from the stereotypes he had projected on women earlier. Pilate is the only person to give Milkman unconditional love, which is part of the reason for his change.
Milkman became very defensive about his nickname in a conversation with Aunt Pilate, but the narrator states, “Always hated that name, all of it, and until he and Guitar became friends, he had hated his nickname too” (Song of Solomon 38). His defensiveness about his name presents an obsessive quality in his character. Milkman states, “I don’t like my name” (Song of Solomon 88). Later, he states, “I don’t give a damn about names” (Song of Solomon 160). If names are not important to him, he would not be so defensive about his name or comments about it. During the course of his quest, he comes to terms with his name and decides that he can live with it because it will die when he dies. At the end of his quest, he unravels the mystery of the names by coming to terms with his name and identity when he finds his ancestry.
Macon II also questions names, “thinks about names” as he is “strutting down the street holding all the keys” (Song of Solomon 17) to houses he owned. The narrator states:
Surely he thought, he and his sister had some ancestor, some lithe young man with onyx skin and legs as straight as cane stalks, who had a name that was real. He wants a name given to him at birth with love and seriousness and a name that was not a joke, not a disguise, nor a brand name. (Song of Solomon 17-8)
Macon’s statements reflects the way the children are named by the plantation owner and not their parents. Macon II also wonders about the origin of his son’s nickname. Macon may not know where his son’s nickname came from, but “he guessed that this name was not clean” (Song of Solomon 15).
A second level of the Milkman’s quest is his search for his family identity and background. Milkman wants to know his history, and he actively searches out people who can give him the answers. Milkman travels from Michigan to search for his family’s history in the south. In Danville, the Reverend Cooper and Circe tell him about his grandfather, grandmother, Pilate, and Macon. In another scene, Susan Byrd provides him information about his grandmother. Another time when Milkman visits Susan and Grace, he states, “I mean to find out about them. We’re all split up, my family” (Song of Solomon 287). This relates to the dismemberment of slaves’ families and the search to piece together a coherent history. Susan states, “It’s important to you, is it, to find your people” (Song of Solomon 292). This relates to the African-American culture searching for their family roots because the institution of slavery erased and scattered their history. Milkman discovers what he is by discovering what his family is. Ancestors are a connection to the past events. They can provide cultural information to the youth, and educate the youth.
During Milkman’s quest, he discovers that each of his family members had some kind of odd personality characteristic: “Why can’t anybody in this whole family just be normal” (Song of Solomon 123). The narrator states, “Everybody kept changing right in front of him [Milkman]” (Song of Solomon 321). Milkman’s quest leads him down several roads, but he ends up in a complete circle when he finishes his quest. In the end, Milkman “bursts the bonds of the Western individualistic conception of self, accepting in its place the richness and complexity of a collective sense of identity” (Eichelberger 68). Milkman achieves this because when he finds many answers to his family history, he realizes everyone has something different about them because that is what makes everyone individuals.
When he returns to Michigan, he is excited because he learns his ancestors are connected to the Solomon family, which is connected to the African flying man myth. Solomon/Shalimar is a slave from Africa who could fly. According to the story, “One day Solomon launched into the air from a cotton field, leaving behind his wife and twenty-one children” (Hill-Rigney), but holding one, Macon I. Pilate accompanies Milkman to Solomon’s Leap to bury what she thought was the bones of a white man, whom she thought she killed when she hit him over the head. Milkman tells her the bones are her father’s. Milkman’s quest for self-identity laid his grandfather’s spirit to rest and relieved his Aunt Pilate of her haunting burden. By burying his bones, she gave her father a long overdue funeral and was relieved of a heavy burden of guilt she had been carrying around for many years. Pilate thought the bones were those of a white man, who she thought she killed because she hit him over the head. Laying her father’s bones to rest suggests the American culture needs to lay the leftover bones of the institution of slavery to rest and lift the burden created by it.
A third level of Milkman’s quest represents African-Americans’ search for their identity and history. There are many examples in this novel of African-Americans’ fight for economic and social equality. One direct reference to the oppression of African-Americans is Macon and Pilate’s father’s death. The children see him shot in the back as he sits on the fence, guarding his home. Pilate says of the death, “I don’t know who and I don’t know why” (Song of Solomon 42). Macon is a freed slave, which left Macon II and Pilate without a family history before freedom. Pilate provides Milkman with a family history when she tells him about his paternal grandfather. Macon’s murder represents the many African-Americans that are murdered and nobody ever knows who committed the crime nor is anyone convicted for the murder. Morrison provides these silenced African-Americans with a story and a history that both the dominant and minority culture must know to understand their own identities.
Guitar and Railroad Tommy are spokesmen for the oppression and violence created against African-Americans by the traditional white ruling class culture. Railroad Tommy told Guitar and Milkman about things they are not going to have because they are African-Americans. He states, “He is not going to have a drink, a good job, money, a good woman, a fancy house, or hope because of their skin color” (Song of Solomon 60). Guitar knew what Railroad Tommy was talking about, but Milkman had not encountered these situations because of his grandfather and father’s economic success. Guitar states, “The cards are stacked against us and just trying to stay in the game, stay alive and in the game, makes us do funny things” (Song of Solomon 87). This is a reference to the American Dream not being accessible to all. Another statement by Guitar relates to the attitude of the white ruling class in the southern states rather than the northern states. Guitar states, “No. A man cannot live there [Montgomery, Alabama]” (Song of Solomon 104). Alabama was a state consumed by racism and hatred of people with different skin colors during the 1930s to 1960s. During this time period, many civil rights activities and retaliation to them from white supremacist groups were taking place all over the country, especially in Alabama.
Guitar makes several references about the African-Americans being oppressed by the traditional American culture’s ideals and values. Guitar knows that he will not get anywhere in life if he plays by the rules; therefore, he steps outside of law and order to emphasize his beliefs. Guitar states, “Well, if a man don’t have a chance, then he has to take a chance” (Song of Solomon 161). This statement reflects Guitar’s beliefs; he wants to change the traditional American culture’s ideal and values.
Guitar is not silent about discussing any political and social issues that he feels oppress the African-American culture. Guitar is even willing to commit murder for his convictions. He is involved with seven men in the ‘Seven Days’ cult, which takes vengeance against white violence. Guitar states, “It’s [killing white people] necessary; it’s got to be done. To keep the ratio the same” (Song of Solomon 155). They debate Guitar’s reasons for being involved with this group and committing murder. Morrison uses Guitar’s character to contrast with Milkman because Guitar is outspoken about the oppression of the African-Americans and Milkman is not. Their responses are different. Guitar takes others’ lives; Milkman sacrifices his own. Milkman rejects random violence against whites; Guitar defends it as their only tool. But Milkman is killed by that violence, suggesting that Morrison is against race hatred because it will turn back against its own community.
Morrison uses several techniques to subvert linear and chronological narration. She juxtaposes reality with several traditional American and African-American fairy tales and myths. She makes a direct reference to the Cinderella fairy tale and the Shirley Temple persona. Milkman states:
You’re like all women. Waiting for Prince Charming to come trotting down the street and pull up in front of your door. Then you’ll sweep down the steps and powie! Your eyes meet and he’ll yank you up on his horse and the two of you ride off into the wind. Violins playing and ‘courtesy of MGM’ stamped on the horse’s butt. Right? (Song of Solomon 97)
The story is a brief plot outline of the Cinderella movie made by Walt Disney. The ending alludes to MGM, the company that made the Cinderella and Shirley Temple’s movies and promoted the traditional values of blonde hair and blue eyes as defining the ideal standard of beauty in American society. A direct reference to Shirley Temple is Circe’s actions, “She shrugged, a Shirley Temple little-girl-helpless shrug” (Song of Solomon 248). Circe is presented as a wise woman and yet Morrison gives her the same characteristics she gives to some of the other characters. This suggests that Circe is no different from the rest of the community because many of the characters buy into the traditional values and beliefs, which is presented in the character’s actions.
Hansel and Gretel is another fairy tale Morrison uses. The fairy tale is about twochildren that are left in the woods by their parents because they could not afford to feed them and because the mother is greedy and thoughtless. The children are so hungry that they are willing to eat from a witch’s house, which is constructed of cake and sugar. The witch put Hansel in a cage and made Gretel her slave. Gretel pushes the witch into the oven and they escape. The children return home with the treasures they stole from the witch and give the jewels to their father. The mother had died and the father is happy to see them and they lived happily ever after. The children’s hunger is similar to that of Milkman and Guitar: “A grown man can also be energized by hunger” (Song of Solomon 119). This refers to Macon, Guitar, and the Milkman’s hunger for what they thought was ‘gold’ in Pilate’s house. The ‘gold’ turns out to be the dried human bones of Pilate’s and Macon’s father, Maxon I. Guitar thought Milkman kept the ‘gold’ for himself and became very angry and tried to shoot Milkman. Guitar’s greediness is similar to Hansel and Gretel’s mother’s greediness because she sacrifices her own children out of greed and Guitar sacrifices his best friend out of greed.
Morrison also uses the American Dream myth, which is the belief that everyone in America can achieve financial, social, and family success through employment and education. Morrison uses this myth to present the reality of those that are excluded from achieving the American Dream because of gender or race:The difference between the American ideal-Christian, tolerant, democratic, intellectually free, opportunistically rich-and the stark reality of life for black Americans-all too often hopeless, voteless, voiceless, jobless, opportunity-less and devoid of Christian charity-was no surprise to those who faced it every day. (Vaidhyanathan)
In his article, Siva Vaidhyanathan presents the duality and reality of the American Dream myth. The ideology behind the American Dream myth and the reality of a white patriarchal society is not the same for African-Americans because like the beauty myth, it was not accessible to most of them. Macon II and Doctor, who was Ruth’s father, seemed to achieve the American Dream, but Macon II paid a heavy price for his success. They are alienated from other African-Americans in the community because of their imitation of the bourgeois whites. Guitar states, “He [Macon II] behaves like a white man, thinks like a white man” (Song of Solomon 223).
Macon II, Doctor, and Ruth create an urban Eden through their imitation of traditional white culture values and this Eden is why Milkman did not know his own identity and his family heritage. It is also why Freddie, the janitor, develops such a vicious nickname for Macon III that obscures his family identity at the same time it elucidates his personal attitude to women. In reality this myth is only accessible by upper and middle class white males because it is not until recently that this myth has become reality for those that are not part of the traditional culture in America.
A final, and main, myth used by Morrison is the African-American flying myth, which is about an African tribe whose people could fly. According to the folklore, a long time age:
All Africans could fly like birds; but owing to their many transgressions, their wings were taken away. Some of them remained, here and there, in the Sea Islands and out-of-the-way places in the low country, some who had been overlooked,and had retained the power of flight, though they looked like other men. A cruel master bought a group of these magical people, and worked them mercilessly. The myth started from one woman that had given birth and was beaten by the overseer when she fainted from overwork and heat. The next time the slave driver approached to whip her she leaped into the air at a signal from the oldest man in the group, and flew away. The overseer was furious, and worked the other slaves harder. When they realized what was happening the master and overseer rushed to kill the old man, but he laughed at them and raised his hands. Suddenly, all of the slaves leaped into the air with a great shout; and in a moment were gone, flying, like a flock of crows over the fields and back to Africa. (Hughes and Bontemps 64)
Milkman is a descendant of the tribe of Solomon, who is a descendant of the flying tribe. When he learns of his ancestry, Milkman acquires his sense of identity, of where he belongs. Milkman is the last man in the line of flyers-a unique African gift. So when he flies at the end, is he flying to certain death at the hands of Guitar, or flying to freedom as ancestors in myth? Or are we supposed to understand this symbolically?
The community’s behavior and responsibilities play a major role in the narration. The people in the community provide information to the reader that Milkman cannot about his family history. The women in the community, especially his Aunt Pilate, are the ones that provide him with his African-American culture identity and family history. Milkman’s quest for “identity and place are found in the community and in the communal experience, and not in the transcendence of society or in the search for a single, pride self” (Bjork vii). For Morrison, the African-American individual is forever linked to the community and the community has two poles-wanna-be-white like Macon II and white race hatred like Guitar.
The novel contains many conversations about how a person should live and interact within a community. Guitar states, “It’s not about you living longer. It’s about how you live and why” (Song of Solomon 160). This is a reference to making changes in economic and social structures for the benefit of mankind as a whole. Another incident occurs when Macon II and Milkman are having a conversation about times past; Macon states, “Folks were expected to be civilized to one another, honest, and clear. You relied on people being what they said they were, because there was no other way to survive” (Song of Solomon 70). Morrison presents these ideas to provide a vehicle for further investigation into the identity of an individual and a community.
Morrison provides several layers of hope to the African culture for the future because of the positive ending of Milkman’s journey. At the end of the novel, Milkman’s awareness provides an important awareness and acceptance of his African-American heritage. When Milkman starts his quest, he is in search of his own identity through his family history. He thought that once he knew his history, he would have all the answers to life. He did not get the answers in the manner that he expected, but he did discover what Pilate knew all along-spiritual freedom leads to self-identity. Milkman shows that he knows what he must do and he acknowledges his identity and his family heritage. He realizes that knowing family history leads to self-freedom.
Milkman’s quest represents freedom, self-knowledge, and a connection to his ancestors. Pilate’s death caused Milkman to discover how to fly and gain spiritual freedom from being rooted by family history. At first, Milkman can supply only some of the words to the song when he sings to Pilate as she is dying. The song draws on African and African-American stories of those who escaped slavery by flying back to Africa. This explains Milkman’s lifelong fascination with flight. When Milkman learns the whole song and sings it to Pilate as she had sung it to others, he assumes his destiny and finds his place in his family. Milkman leaves no offspring. He is the moderate point between the material wanna-be-white aspirations of his father and the race hatred of his friend. Milkman identifies with his Aunt who is haunted by the burden of family and race identity. But her knowledge is incomplete. Pilate doesn’t understand the messages she hears. She thinks she’s carrying the white man’s burden when she’s carrying the ancestor burden.
2002: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this may be produced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from me at cldensmore@glccomputers.com
