Song of Solomon
is an interesting novel, not only for its content, but also for the style in
which it is written. This novel seems to be a combination of a coming of age
story as well as an epic heroic quest-type story. Song of Solomon also contains some elements of a tragic love story
like the one we saw in Wide Sargasso Sea.
I think the way Morrison crafts Song of Solomon as a coming of age story is very unique. For much
of the novel and Milkman’s life, we see very little character development. Only
now, in his thirties, do we see him breaking away from his family and hometown,
and really becoming an independent adult. When I think of a coming of age
story, I think of one in which the main character is a teenager or young adult,
not in his thirties. Even though the age at which Milkman really finds out who
he his is a little delayed, Song of
Solomon still follows a typical coming of age story line where the main
character goes on an adventure or blossoms under an extenuating and learns a
lot about the world and themselves.
The adventure that Milkman goes on brings me to my next
point, the sort of epic quest in Song of
Solomon. Like we talked about in class today, Milkman’s journey/wild goose
chase through the south for gold is reminiscent of other epic quest like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Even though (as
of yet) Milkman has not struck gold, he meets his relatives along the way and
learns about his families past and in a sense, comes of age.
Throughout the course of this adventure and Milkman’s coming
of age, made me develop a new opinion on many of the main characters in Song of Solomon. I like Milkman a lot
more now that I see him being independent and also becoming a more empathetic
person (e.g helping the man with the crate). Likewise, I no longer like Guitar
and Hagar. Since Milkman has left (although even before for Hagar), they have
changed for the worse. Guitar is trying to kill his best friend and Hagar
completely defines herself by him. Where Milkman is trying to have his father
dictate his actions less, Guitar and Hagar let Milkman solely define theirs.
I think that Song of
Solomon could also be describes as a tragic love story. Hagar and Milkman’s
relationship has deteriorated and Hagar is driven to insanity by Milkman’s lack
of love for her. We see her as the “mad woman” trying to kill him every month,
similar to how Antoinette was driven to madness by Rochester’s cruelty and
tries to burn his house down once in England. Guitar and Milkman’s relationship
at the end of the book is also pretty tragic. They used to be best friends and
now Guitar is convinced Milkman is cheating him so he wants to kill him. It
doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that Guitar want’s to kill Milkman, but that
fact is a lot sadder because Guitar seemed to be Milkman’s only friend not
related to him by blood.
