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| Toni Morrison John Mathew Smith (celebrity-photos.com), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
INTRODUCTION
Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977) is widely regarded as one of the most important works of American literature. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the novel fuses myth, African American folklore, history, and magical realism into a multi-generational story about identity, flight, and the search for ancestral roots.
At its core, the novel is about a Black man named Macon “Milkman” Dead III, who must journey backward through his family’s history to understand who he is and what it means to live freely.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk through a scene-by-scene chronological summary of Song of Solomon while analyzing the *themes of identity, freedom, flight, trauma, and cultural memory. This dual approach will help students, teachers, and readers alike unpack Morrison’s layered narrative.
SHORT SUMMARY
Toni Morrison’s 1977 novel, Song of Solomon, is a monumental work of African American literature. The narrative is a profound blend of realism, myth, and magical realism, chronicling one man’s journey of self-discovery and the reclamation of his cultural heritage. This novel stands as a powerful exploration of identity, family, and the enduring legacy of history.
The story follows the life of Macon "Milkman" Dead III, born into a wealthy but emotionally sterile black family in a small town in Michigan. His father, Macon Dead Jr., is a cold, materialistic property owner who has become detached from his roots. His mother, Ruth, is similarly alienated, clinging to the trappings of a higher social class. Milkman’s early life is one of passive existence, devoid of genuine connection or purpose. He is a directionless young man, burdened by a family history he does not understand and an identity he has yet to forge.
The central plot is propelled by Milkman’s desire for a mythical gold treasure. He is informed by his eccentric aunt, Pilate, that his family's lineage is tied to a legendary gold hoard. This quest for wealth becomes a metaphor for his deeper, unconscious search for self. The journey takes him from his northern home to the rural South, specifically to the place of his family’s origin, a town named Shalimar, Virginia. This physical voyage marks a profound spiritual and psychological transformation.
In the South, Milkman encounters a vibrant community that is deeply connected to its history and traditions. He is forced to shed his materialistic and apathetic worldview, and his relationships with the local people, particularly with a woman named Hagar, are marked by a raw authenticity he has never experienced. He learns the painful truths of his family’s past, including the story of his grandfather, a man who was murdered for his land.
Most critically, he uncovers the long-forgotten story of his own ancestors: a slave who, according to local legend and the children’s song, flew back to Africa. This discovery provides him with the missing links to his past and a sense of belonging he has always lacked.
The novel concludes with Milkman’s realization that the real treasure was never the gold but the rich history of his family and the cultural heritage he has finally embraced. He returns home with a newfound sense of purpose and a deeper understanding of himself. The narrative's powerful final image of Milkman's leap from a cliff, in an act of faith and self-possession, signifies his liberation from the emotional and spiritual burdens that have weighed on him his entire life.
Song of Solomon is a timeless epic that demonstrates how the journey into one’s past can be the most transformative act of all.
ANALYTICAL SUMMARY
Opening Scene: Flight and the Promise of Escape
The novel begins in 1931 in Michigan, with a strange and symbolic event: Robert Smith, an insurance agent, climbs onto the roof of Mercy Hospital wearing blue silk wings. Announcing that he will fly, he leaps to his death. A crowd gathers, and among them is Ruth Foster Dead, heavily pregnant with her son—later known as Milkman.
This opening establishes one of the central motifs of the novel: flight as both liberation and destruction. The narrator writes:
“Without ever leaving the ground, he could fly.”
This paradox anticipates Milkman’s own journey: true flight comes not from escaping physically but from understanding spiritually.
Childhood (1930s–1940s): Milkman’s Origins
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Birth Scene: Milkman is born moments after Robert Smith’s jump, an eerie parallel between death and life. Ruth names him Macon Dead III, after his father and grandfather. The family name itself is the result of a clerical error when a drunken Union soldier misrecorded their true surname. Already, identity is fractured by history.
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Family Dynamics: Milkman’s father, Macon Dead Jr., is a wealthy but emotionally cold landlord. He despises his wife, Ruth, whom he accuses of an unnatural attachment to her late father, Dr. Foster. Their marriage is loveless, and their household is tense.
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The Breastfeeding Incident: At age four, Milkman earns his nickname when a neighbor discovers him still nursing at his mother’s breast. This moment of shame brands him for life, symbolizing his delayed independence and emotional immaturity.
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Childhood Friendships: Milkman grows up with Guitar Bains, who becomes his closest friend. Guitar is sharp, charismatic, and politically conscious, though his anger at racial injustice will later lead him down a darker path.
Adolescence (1940s–1950s): Wealth, Alienation, and Gender
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Pilate’s Introduction: Milkman meets his eccentric aunt Pilate Dead, a central figure in the novel. Pilate is Macon Jr.’s sister, a poor but independent woman who lives without a navel. She makes bootleg wine, sings folk songs, and raises her daughter Reba and granddaughter Hagar. Her presence represents an alternative to Macon Jr.’s obsession with material wealth.
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Conflict with Macon Jr.: Macon Jr. instills in Milkman the values of property ownership, teaching him that “owning things is the only way to be free.” Yet Milkman feels stifled by his father’s materialism and cruelty.
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Relationship with Hagar: Milkman begins a long-term sexual relationship with his cousin Hagar. Though she loves him deeply, he grows indifferent. Their relationship highlights Morrison’s critique of gendered exploitation, as Hagar becomes consumed by unrequited desire.
Early Adulthood: Milkman’s Discontent
By his early thirties, Milkman is dissatisfied. He works for his father but finds no meaning in it. He feels weighed down by family, community, and obligations. He dreams of flight—an echo of Robert Smith’s opening leap.
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The Gold Rumor: Milkman learns from Macon Jr. that Pilate once hid a bag of gold stolen from a cave in Pennsylvania. Seeing gold as his chance at independence, Milkman and Guitar plot to steal it.
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The Failed Robbery: They break into Pilate’s house, but the sack contains only bones, not gold. Pilate tells Milkman that the bones belong to her father, Macon Dead I, who was murdered long ago.
This moment ties personal history to ancestral trauma. Milkman seeks material wealth, but what he finds is his buried lineage.
Guitar and the Seven Days
At this point, Morrison expands the novel into a wider commentary on systemic racism. Guitar reveals to Milkman that he belongs to a secret organization called the Seven Days, a vigilante group that retaliates for every Black person murdered by whites by killing a white person in return.
Guitar insists:
“It’s about maintaining the balance. If we don’t kill them, they’ll kill us all.”
This ideology appeals to Guitar’s sense of justice but horrifies Milkman. Their diverging paths mark the tension between violent resistance and personal self-discovery.
The Southern Journey: From Michigan to Pennsylvania to Virginia
Milkman decides to trace his family’s past in search of the rumored gold, but the trip transforms into a mythic quest for identity.
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Danville, Pennsylvania: Milkman visits the town where his father and Pilate were raised. There he learns more about Macon Dead I, his grandfather, who was once a prosperous farmer before being killed by white men jealous of his land. Milkman begins to realize the resilience and dignity in his heritage.
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Shalimar, Virginia: In the rural South, Milkman discovers that his great-grandfather, Solomon, was a legendary figure who escaped slavery by flying back to Africa, leaving behind his wife, Ryna, and 21 children. The children sing a folk song about him:
“Solomon done fly, Solomon done gone / Solomon cut across the sky, Solomon gone home.”
This song reveals Milkman’s true inheritance: not gold, but a story of survival, freedom, and mythic flight.
Transformation in Shalimar
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The Fight in the Woods: Milkman gets into a fight with local men and, for the first time, learns humility. He sheds his arrogance and begins to empathize with others.
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Connection to Nature: Alone in the forest, he feels light, free, and unburdened.
“Without ever leaving the ground, he could fly.”
This echoes the novel’s opening line, but now it has gained meaning. Milkman’s flight is not physical escape but spiritual liberation.
Hagar’s Tragedy
Meanwhile, back in Michigan, Hagar suffers after Milkman rejects her. Obsessed with him, she tries repeatedly to kill him but fails each time. Eventually, she dies of grief and self-neglect. Her tragic death underscores Morrison’s theme of how internalized self-hatred and gendered exploitation devastate Black women. Pilate and Reba mourn her in a heart-wrenching scene of maternal lament.
The Final Return and Confrontation
Milkman returns to Michigan with a new sense of identity. He tries to share his discoveries with Guitar, but Guitar—still obsessed with the gold—believes Milkman betrayed him.
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Pilate’s Death: In the climactic scene, Milkman takes Pilate back to Virginia to bury her father’s bones properly. At the gravesite, Guitar shoots Pilate. As she dies, Pilate tells Milkman:
“I wish I’d a knowed more people. I would of loved ’em all. If I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more.”
This final lesson emphasizes love, community, and human connection as the true inheritance.
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The Leap: After Pilate’s death, Milkman confronts Guitar. In a gesture of ultimate freedom, he leaps off a cliff, either to fight Guitar or to embrace death. The novel ends ambiguously:
“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.”
Thematic Analysis of Song of Solomon
1. Flight as Freedom and Abandonment
From Robert Smith’s suicidal leap to Solomon’s mythical escape, flight symbolizes both liberation and loss. Milkman learns that true flight requires responsibility, not abandonment.
2. Identity and Ancestry
Milkman begins estranged from his past but discovers that his name, his family’s stories, and his community connect him to a larger cultural legacy. His transformation echoes Morrison’s broader project of recovering Black history erased by slavery and racism.
3. Materialism vs. Spiritual Wealth
Macon Jr.’s obsession with property contrasts with Pilate’s embrace of ancestral wisdom and love. Milkman must reject hollow materialism to inherit the richness of cultural memory.
4. Gender and Exploitation
The women—Ruth, Pilate, Reba, Hagar—carry the burdens of survival, love, and sacrifice. Hagar’s tragedy reveals the cost of living in a society and family that devalues Black women’s desires and pain.
5. Violence and Justice
Guitar embodies the rage against racial violence but channels it into a cycle of revenge that ultimately isolates him. Morrison asks whether violence can ever achieve true justice.
Conclusion
Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is both a personal odyssey and a communal history, a novel that fuses myth with reality to explore what it means to live freely. Milkman Dead’s journey from selfish detachment to ancestral awakening is one of the most profound transformations in American literature.
The novel ends not with closure but with an open question: Is Milkman’s leap an act of surrender, courage, or death? Morrison leaves us with ambiguity, mirroring the complexity of freedom itself.
Ultimately, Song of Solomon teaches that flight is possible, but only when grounded in love, memory, and responsibility.
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