Skip to main content

Interesting Metaphors in Song of Solomon

Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon is peppered with many different unusual metaphors. Often appearing at unexpected moments, this figurative language enhances the text and offers more meaning into the characters’ minds. The following are a few of my favorite metaphors:
“There was the pain and shame of seeing his father crumple before any man–even himself. Sorrow in discovering that the pyramid was not five-thousand-year wonder of the civilized world, mysteriously and permanently constructed by generation after generation of hardy men who had died in order to perfect it, but that it had been made in the back room at Sears, by a clever window dresser, of papier-maché, guaranteed to last a lifetime” (68)
In this passage, Milkman reflects on hitting his father after Macon abuses Ruth. The act of retaliation represents Milkman’s loss of innocence and transition into full adulthood; he realizes that he no longer fears his father. Prior to this moment, his father, like the pyramid, is a mysterious object of wonder; he is both fearsome and omnipotent. Yet, just as if Milkman smashed a paper-maché pyramid, Macon’s image crumbles when Milkman retaliates. Milkman realizes that his father’s image is merely a façade, and that he is truly weak and vulnerable.
“Milkman closed his eyes and then opened them. The street was even more crowded with people, all going in the direction he was coming from. All walking hurriedly and bumping against him. After a while he realized that nobody was walking on the other side of the street. There were no cars and the street lights were on, now that darkness had come, but the sidewalk on the other side of the street was completely empty…not a soul” (78)
This passage highlights Milkman’s sense of isolation. After Milkman hits his father, Macon tells him about Ruth’s seemingly-sexual relationship with her father. This casts darkness on Milkman’s already strange relationship with Ruth. Furthermore, after Milkman hits Macon, Corinthians and Lena both look at him with disgust and anger. Rather than praise him for his heroism, they seem to disapprove of him, to think that he acted in the wrong.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Allusions in Song of Solomon

           Song of Solomon is peppered with many different allusions. Ranging from classical myths to traditional folk tales, these stories enhance the text and establish parallels between Morrison’s characters and well-known figures. One such allusion is the Brothers’ Grimm tale of “Hansel and Gretel.” At the start of Part II in the novel, Morrison describes the tale of “Hansel and Gretel” and compares the two children’s journey to Milkman searching for Circe’s home. In “Hansel and Gretel,” two children abandoned in the woods by their parents who cannot afford to care for them anymore come across a witch’s house from which they must escape after she attempts to eat them. The story reflects an era’s financial hardships, but also a loss of innocence for Hansel and Gretel. “Hansel and Gretel” functions in Song of Solomon in two different ways. First of all, Macon and Pilate are Hansel and Gretel. After all, their beloved father is killed by racists, and the...
Post a Comment
Read more

"The Headstrong Historian": an Homage to Things Fall Apart

In her short story “The Headstrong Historian,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie pays tribute to Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart while adding her own distinct voice. Like Achebe’s classic novel, “The Headstrong Historian” paints rich portraits of Nigerian tribal culture before the advent of white missionaries and the Nigerians who grapple with culture clashes and changes. The short story immediately establishes its ties to Things Fall Apart when it mentions that the character “Obierika”–a name which readers may recognize as the close friend of Achebe’s protagonist Okonkwo–is the late husband of Adichie’s protagonist Nwamgba (198). Moreover, when Nwamgba and Obierika struggle to conceive a child, Nwamgba “suggests he go and see the Okonkwo family about their daughter” as a potential wife and mother to his child (204). These developments create the expectation that the short story will have a similar, if not identical, narrative to Things Fall Apart : that the advent of the white missio...
Post a Comment
Read more