Novel Song of Solomon - Book Report/Review Example

Novel Song of Solomon Toni Morrison an American novelist, editor and was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in 1931 on February the 18th. Toni has received many awards for her African American literature works including the presidential Medal of Freedom, Nobel Prize in literature and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Song of Solomon can be considered a bildungsroman, a coming of age story that discusses moral and psychological development of a protagonist.The protagonist is Milkman who the novel talks about from his growth from childhood to adulthood and he is a highly flawed character. It is about enslavement and the people who tried to escape slavery and try to find their roots back in Africa. In this book the protagonist is Milkman, a young man brought up in a wealthy family but with parents who do not love each other anymore. This is shown when Milkman’s father hits Ruth. Milkman complains to his friend guitar that certain things are making him angry and getting to him. He says, “I don’t know, guitar. Things seem to be getting to me, you know?”(Morrison, 152).Macon loves money and he loves property. His money has made him oblivious to other people’s problems. He wants his son to be just like him and surely Milkman behaves just like his father. He’s wealthy background makes him oblivious of the black oppression. Furthermore, he has money to spend on women thus treats them with little disregard. This paper is going to discuss how Milkman overcame this lifestyle to become a fully transformed man. Milkman’s Transformation and Psychological Growth Milkman is flawed and this is enhanced by the amount of money his father has. As a matter of fact it is the wealthy background that gives milkman his attitude. Just like his father, milkman is obsessed with money and tends to reason like a white man.Milkman believes in the power of money to gain him freedom and power in life. This is because he uses money to get the things he needs like buying alcohol, women and having a good time, thus he only believes I the power of money. In line with this thinking, he becomes a rude, mean and a dangerous person. His dangerous personality is witnessed when he hits his father for hitting his mother. We see him complain to his friend Guitar ,“Your daddy slapped your mama, right?”, “Right.Right.” (Morrison,152).However, he is not dangerous in a bad way like in being violent and murderous. He is just a man who likes to have control of situations and want things to happen his way. Milkman is also a womanizer a trait he enjoyed with guitar his poor friend. He has money and money buys him women and life’s little pleasures. Although he has dated Hagar for 12 years he is bored with her and decides to jilt her. Milkman is shown to be dating Hagar and mistreating her because of his wayward ways especially of spending time with other females.Milkman is very cruel man and does not have pity for anyone. Apart from being a womanizer he is mean and cruel too. His cruelty for the opposite sex and to people in general witnessed when breaks Hagar’s heart after 12 years just like that.He is cold and unresponsive to the opposite sex and thisdrives Hagar mad that she tries to kill him. At one time she tries to stab him but stops, instead of Milkman being polite he yells at her and says, “why don’t you do that then your problems will be over” (Morrison,130).Because of his arrogant and rude nature he does not even bother to talk to her personally. Instead he writes her a note and drops her some money and leaves. His cruel nature is what makes him totally disconnected to the people in the society especially his fellow black people. Milkman has no interest towards racism in that being a black person in a period of black oppression by white people in that guitar tells him of these occurrences by giving the example of Till, but Milkman says he doesn’t care about him.He says, “…yeah, well, fuck till ...” (Morrison, 152). Even the story from the barbershop about black oppression does not bother Milkman in fact it is the starting point of his drift with guitar due to different views on the subject. He is so disconnected with his black roots mainly because of his money no matter how much guitar tries to convince him. Guitar even gives him an example of a black person who is oppressed, he tells Milkman, “Look at Till. They got to him too. Now he’s just an item on WJR’S evening news.”(Morrison, 154). Although Milkman is highly flawed in his character it is useful in order to show that Milkmanneeds a transformation and he is not that bad since he portrays normal blindness of people in his position. Exploration of milkman’s transformation Milkman’s transformation journey begins when he reaches around thirty years. Milkman has been yearning to escape his family who he feels do not treat him well since his sister Lena, abused him mercilessly.Milkman also feels he needs financial freedom which he has not experienced since he has been working for his father. This transformation is by chance and does not happen intentionally. Milkman sheds off his fancy suit and adorns a military uniform. This he does upon reaching Shalimar when he is asked to participate in a forest hunt by the old men. Although he is afraid he goes with them.This is the beginning of his transformation, from a fancy life to a normal life. Upon reaching the woods Milkman is very afraid and he realizes his second transformation. This comes with the realization that his background cannot help him here only the people with him whom he has shadowed all his life. He closes his eyes to have a rest and his whole life comes to him. He realizes he has been a bad person to his family, Hagar, guitar and the society as well. His spiritual rebirth occurs at this point when he is strangled to near death by guitar. This near death experience and the ‘resurrection’ makes him realize how short life is. He has a rebirth and wakes up a different man than he went before.The death like experience makes him realize that he needs to change and be good to people who show him love and care and even to the whole society. He learns to appreciate his health and life and in what ways he can use his life to do well to others to make his life meaningful. Milkman’s moral and psychological growth after the transformation After the transformation and the rebirth Milkman realizes he has a long way to go. He has to rectify so many aspects of his life. He gets a mini transformation when he even notices that people in Shalimarmore loving than he has been his entire life and he thought they were bad people. This acts as a catalyst to Milkman’s eventual transformation. The first sign towards his growth is seen in his cool attitude. Milkman does not want to get into fights and even when Milkman tries to kill him he just scares him off and even lies to the men about it. Milkman is changed as he tries to reconnect with the society. This is shown when he reciprocates theprostitute’s love by bathing her, scrubbing her bath and giving her appreciation money all because she was good to him so he was also being good to her unlike the cold former milkman. Another catalyst for Milkman’s growth isinthe contents of the green sack.Milkman need to embark on the journey was driven by his need for financial freedom. His aunt Pilate told him where to get some gold in agreen sack. Eventually the green sack is found not to contain gold but bones. The bones belong to Milkman’s grandfather and it becomes a blessing and a catalyst for Milkman’s transformation. He wanted to know his people, his father’s peopleand learn his identity and now he had his grandfather’s bones. The significance of gold turning out to be Milkman’s grandfather’sbone is to show the rarity of finding such stuff just like gold is difficult to find. In conclusion, Toni Morrison’s novel is a bildungsroman because it talks about the protagonist’s life from childhood to adulthood. The protagonist Milkman is a young man from a wealthy background. He is mean, rude, arrogant, a womanizer and a materialistic man. He is unconcerned about his fellow black’s struggles during the black oppression because of his privileged background. All this however changes when Milkman decides to embark on ajourney to know his father’s people who he learns had escaped slavery and returned to Africa. Moreover, he seeks financial freedom that his aunt Pilate tells him a location to find some. This journey marks Milkman’s transformation and rebirth. His rebirth comes after anear death experiment when his friend Guitar tries to strangle him. Having been nearly dead Milkman feels like he has resurrected and he feels he should change his ways. He drops his fancy life, fancy clothes and mean attitude and becomes a changedman who finally overcomes the world. Work Cited Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. , 2014. Print. . Read More