Song of Solomon

1. Song of Solomon Chapters 1-5

2. Flight • Pilate sings the titular song at Mr. Smith’s flight, just before Milkman’s birth • “O cleave the air fly away home/My gran, he, flew back to Africa” • Pilate’s father tells her “You just can’t fly off and leave a body” (147). (Hayden)

3. Flight • Canonical Afro-American folklore legend of the “Flying African” • Loss and disappearing • Transformation and revolution • Nostalgia and return (Hayden)

4. Flight • Mythological basis in Icarus and Daedalus, father and son • “O Daedalus, Fly Away Home” Drifting night in the Georgia pines. . . ” • Icarian heights overreach • Daedalus is successful (Hayden)

5. Flight • Milkman is born the day after Mr. Smith’s flight • “O Sugarman done fly away/. . . Sugarman cut across the sky/ Sugarman gone home” (6). • Milkman loses interest in himself when he learns he cannot fly (9) • If Mercy were Montgomery, he’d buy a plane ticket

6. Identity • Naming has the power to form identity • Who has the power to give names? • “Niggers get their names. . . the best way they can” (88).

7. Identity • Macon Dead = drunk Yankee’s mistake • Milkman = unnaturally prolonged childhood • Guitar = passion • Bible names = Providence (Pilate, Ruth, First Corinthians, Magdalena, Rebecca [Reba], Hagar)

8. Identity • The white world gauges worth by money and possessions • “A nigger in business is a terrible thing to see” (22). • “Own things. And let the things you own own other things” (55). • Milkman leaves Hagar a note and money

9. Coming of Age • Milkman is the victim of a prolonged childhood • Nursed by his mother for tool long • Kept out of WWII by his father’s influence • Held back by father for 31 years

10. Coming of Age • Milkman senses the restlessness of change • Concentrates on things behind him, “[a]lmost as though there were no future” (35). • Walking in a different direction than everyone else

11. Fathers and Sons • Macon Dead is orphaned at a young age • Father had been a slave • Father had established “Lincoln’s Heaven” • Tricked by the white man’s greed

12. Fathers and Sons • Milkman is born into purposeless privilege • Father attempts to abort him • Milkman follows his father’s business • Milkman strikes out against his father

13. Fathers and Sons • Guitar is fatherless, raised by a grandmother • Father is killed in a grisly sawmill accident • The white man gives him candy as recompense • Finds identity and purpose among the Seven Days in the barber shop

14. Singing and Songs • The “flying African” folklore is preserved in song • Macon is drawn to Pilate’s siren song • The ghost of Pilate’s father tells her to “Sing. Sing” (147).

15. Female Roles • Wife and mother = life giver and sustainer • Ruth nurses Milkman for too long, yet she cannot cook • Pilate gives birth to herself and is marked as preternaturally different • Hagar sees Milkman as “my home in this world” (137), yet she tries to kill him

16. Female Roles • Sorceress and healer = power over creation • Pilate gives Ruth an elixir to seduce Macon and create life • Pilate protects Milkman with voodoo sorcery • Both Ruth and Pilate derive meaning from the (D)ead

17. Female Roles • Queen or courtesan = powerful empress of men’s fates • Macon jealously kills Dr. Foster to possess Ruth • Pilate nearly kills Reba’s lover • Hagar is paralyzed and unable to kill the resigned Milkman (D)ead

18. Works Cited Hayden, Robert. Collected Poems. Ed. Frederick Glaysher. Noew York: Liveright, 1985.