Active Blog for Chapter 15

Plot Summary: Chapter fifteen is the final chapter in Song of Solomon. Milkman is back in Shalimar right after he hears the truth about his ancestry from his distant relative, Susan Byrd. He is very excited about this newfound knowledge and celebrates it with a woman he met in Shalimar named Sweet. He goes back to his hometown to tell his dad and aunt about their family's heritage and about the gold, etc. He decides to go tell Pilate first and she immediately knocks him unconscious with a wine bottle because he had basically caused Hagar to kill herself. He awakens in a cellar where he shares with Pilate a revelation that she us carrying her father's bones in the green sack this whole time, not the bones of a white man she thought her father had told her to carry. She is shocked at this news and decides to go back and bury him properly in the cave where she found him in Danville. Before they leave, Milkman has a sort of peace between his family members: Lena isn't too mad at him anymore because Corinthians is living with Porter now, and though his parent's relationship is as frayed as ever, he accepts it. He and Pilate go to the cave and bury their respective items: Pilate has the bones of her father and the earring that carried the only word Macon Dead had ever written in hi life, her name; Milkman buries the hair of a woman who killed herself because he hadn't care at all for her. Guitar Baines shoots Pilate during the burial and after wishing that she had loved more people than she had in life, she dies. Milkman yells for Guitar that if he wants Milkman's life, here it is, and he throws himself off the cliff and flies away (ie. he kills himself). It is only in death does Milkman realize that that is the only way that he can fly.

Themes: The main theme that is easily identifiable is that the only way to fly is to get rid of all of the worldly things hindering you from being entirely free. Another theme would be that knowing one's history is something that defines one's character. And perhaps another theme would be to love people while you still have a chance or else you'd be faced with regret as you pass on into the next life.

Magical Realism: There was reference to Pilate's father's ghost talking to her again. The pinnacle of Milkman's life was when he finally learned to fly. It is hinted that he literally got to fly away like his great grandfather Solomon/Shalimar also did.

Chapter 15 Quote, page 333: "Names had meaning. No wonder Pilate put hers in her ear. When you know your name, you should hang onto it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you do." This is an essential theme that has been stressed as a main lesson in Milkman's life.

Chapter 15 Quote, page 334: "Perhaps that's what all human relationships boiled down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it?" This also seemed to sum up the way Milkman assessed all of his relationships. In Guitar's case he says that he'd do both.

Character Analysis:
Milkman: He has come to many realizations since the beginning of this novel. He has learned the importance of language through the use of names and through expression. He has learned to fly by getting ride of all of the heavy things holding him down (ex: his life).
Pilate: She has stayed the wise old woman/earth-mother archetype throughout the entire book. She got rid of the body that had been burdening her since her father died. It was satisfying to know that she got to fly to, even before she left the ground.
Macon Dead II: He has stayed the same throughout the book as one of the main antagonists to the main character and to his whole family.
Guitar Baines: He deserves pity, for his life is filled with much hardship. Whilst enlisted in the service of the Seven Days his outlook on life becomes twisted to the point where his really only true friend, Milkman, became his enemy. He killed Pilate, but it's uncertain whether he meant to shoot her or Milkman. He does not seem to show any remorse for killing her at the end of the book, which is quite unfortunate. The end of the novel gives no hints at how his life will turn out with the suicide of his former friend, Milkman Dead.

Reflective Blog for Chapter 15

I loved the beginning of this chapter. Milkman was so happy and joyful that he had found his family's history. He was so nice and playful with Sweet when he went to the quarry to go swimming. Milkman was exulting that his great-grandfather could fly. The whole mood was very tangible and cute. But I could tell that things were going to start getting bad because the issue with Guitar had still yet gotten resolved.
When Milkman came to Pilate's house and after she knocked him unconscious with a wine bottle, he finally came to realize some things that made his life come full circle and possess some meaning: he realized that he was petty and selfish to be dreaming of living and flying whilst Hagar was dying.
I liked the irony found in Pilate's situation when she found out from Milkman that she wasn't hauling around a random white guy's bones with her all of these years, but she was carrying her father's. It was also satisfying to see that Milkman was taking responsibility of "his body," a.k.a. Hagar's hair.
Another thing I'd like to point out was Pilate's surrender of her father's ties when she gave up her earring that held the only word her father had ever wrote in his life, her name. If she wouldn't have gotten shot by Guitar she probably would have stopped talking to her father's ghost because it was her closure.
When Milkman sang "Sugargirl, don't leave me here," I thought that also brought Pilate's life full circle because she sang that song for Mr. Smith right before he died.
A symbol of flight and death and life after death could have been when a bird that Milkman had woken up with his singing came and dove in the new grave and took Pilate's earring and flew away into the sky. Milkman said that he had loved Pilate so much because she had known how to fly without leaving the ground, which reemphasizes the bird taking her earring being the symbolism of her physical ascent into heaven.
I absolutely love the last sentence of the book. It describes the whole point of the novel in one tiny sentence. Basically, if you give up all of the things that are burdening you, you can fly! In order for Milkman to fly he had to die because living turned out to be such a hard thing for him to do. The important thing though was that he eventually did get to fly.

Active Blog for Chapters 13-14

Plot Summary:
Chapter thirteen opens with the continuation of the scene when Milkman leaves her with a very nasty comment and then deserts her. Guitar comes back to his house to pick up the pieces of her already broken heart. Though he gives her good advise, she stays in a comatose state until she "realizes" that Milkman must not love her because she's dirty. She splurges all of her mother and grandmother's money on clothes and makeup and jewelry and such trifle items in order to spark back Milkman's love. She goes out in the rain because she was looking for something to do until her hair appointment: her bags fall apart and all of her stuff gets ruined. It seems as though this was a foreshadowing element because about everything that could go wrong in her life did go wrong. She goes home and wallows in her depressed state. It is revealed that Hagar kills herself because she did not get the love that she needed from Milkman. Macon gives Ruth forty dollars for the funeral where Pilate basically demands justice from Milkman who essential caused her baby girl's death.
Chapter fourteen transitions from Hagar and Pilate's view back to Milkman who is back at his grandmother's relatives house. He comes back because he heard Solomon's Song (title reference!) and he thinks Susan Byrd is not telling all that she knows. His intuition is correct because she was keeping what she knew quiet because Ms. Grace who was over is a gossip and her information is scandalous. Susan tells Milkman thinks that confirmed his suspicions: Sining Bird's (Sing Byrd's) mother took in Jake because his father had dropped him while he was flying back to Africa. He was the only son of twenty that Solomon tried to take with him. Ryna, Solomon's wife, was in mourning for days in which she's wail for days. The gulch in the town is named Ryna's Gulch because when the wind blows through it makes a wailing noise. Milkman seems to have a sort of peace about him because he finally realizes that he actually knows his history.

Themes: One major theme that is seen in chapter thirteen is one of knowing who you are so that you don't have to rely on others to affirm you. Hagar did the opposite of this and ended up killing herself. Chapter fourteen is about self-discovery through familial history.

Magical Realism: There does not seem to be any magical realism in chapter thirteen. In chapter fourteen, however, Solomon actually flies away to Africa. He tries to take Milkman's grandfather, Jake, with him but drops him accidentally.

Quotes for Chapter 13, pg 309: "Did you ever see the way the clouds the mountain? They circle all around it; sometimes you can't see the mountain for the clouds. But you know what? You go up top and what do you see? His head. The clouds never cover his head...They let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him." This is a very pretty analogy to the way a prefect love should be. One that can be seen as a single entity, but it not being to close that they become a monotonous person with one brain. People should have their own unique identity.

Quotes for Chapter 13, pg 312: "Look at how I look. I look awful. No wonder he doesn't want me. I look terrible." I hate this. I hate how this is how Milkman made her feel: worthless. I wanted to slap him very hard when I read this.

Quotes for Chapter 14, pg 324: "Everybody kept changing right in front of him." There didn't seem to be one stable person in Milkman's life who stayed true and stable and the same. I can empathize with him.

Quotes for Chapter 14, page 328: "It's a wonder anybody knows who anybody is." This is a reinforcer of the quote above because through the good and bad people have to change. It makes perfect sense to adapt when things change but when that happens it is inevitable that people change.

Character Changes:
Milkman- he stays the same throughout the fourteenth chapter.
Pilate-goes from loving and caring for Milkman like her own son but when he inevitably causes the death of Hagar, she wants justice from him.
Reba- she changes when she actually goes and tries to win things when before she'd win without trying. Suffice to say her "magic" does not work this time.
Macon Dead-he changes a little bit when he shows pity for his niece and gives Ruth money for Hagar's funeral.
Hagar- she kills herself because Milkman doesn't love her.
Guitar- shows a softness towards Hagar that he really hasn't shown to women, or men for that matter.

Reflective Blog for Chapters 13-14

Chapter thirteen is seriously about the time where my dislike for Milkman reaches its zenith and almost crosses the bridge to disdain. I do not like how Hagar gets dumped for no other reason than that she just wants a loving partner to take care of her and she do the same for him. I hate how she's abandoned in such a hurtful manner and thinks it's her fault. Not only that but she comes up with reasons that are superficial for him to like which shows that she thinks that only temporary things appealed to him. This may have been a factor in why Milkman dumped her. Anyway, she foolishly blows her family's money on clothes and makeup and other unnecessary items and then drops them in the rain. It's horrible she was reduced to such a pitiful state. And then she goes and kills her self. I felt so sorry and sad for her and her caretakers, Reba and Pilate.
There is incredible diction is this chapter. I felt every feeling intensely enough to start crying when I found out that Hagar had killed herself. The injustice of the situation just about broke my heart because Hagar's situation is mirrored in many places in present day, especially in people my age.
I love the whole aspect of the African flying legends. I like how their people were able to fly away of their own accord back to their native country because they were torn away from it to be slaves. There's justice in that which I can appreciate.
That there was a song about Milkman's history made me feel happy. For some reason I just liked that his ansestory in a song that every little child in Shalimar knew and yet they did not even realize the gravity of the lyrics that gave Milkman a sense of peace about himself.

Active Reading Blog for Chapters 11-13

Plot Summary:
In chapter thirteen, Milkman goes out on his odyssey-like journey to find his aunt's treasure/inheritance. In the last chapter his had found out that the town of Danville did not hold the treasure that he had been searching for. He sets out for Virginia where he thinks Pilate may have stashed the gold. The town of Shalimar is where he sets off with nothing except his wallet and his watch that doesn't work. He stops at a gas station type of institution in Shalimar where a man named Mr. Solomon reaffirms Milkman that he is in "Shaleemon" (sounds kind of like Solomon). There was a message from Guitar that said "your Day has come," which he said because he believes Milkman had stolen the gold and sent it to the town for his own benefit. He thought Milkman did not want to share the gold. Milkman's car had broken down in front of the gas station and he goes outside to think about the message. When he comes back inside, the men pick a fight with him because Milkman had the money to buy a brand new car when they could not, he had wanted to "use" their pretty women, and his whole aura put out that he was better than they were. He gets cut up and the old men out on the porch invited him to go hunting with them, to which he agreed to do. As they went hunting, he got tired because of his knife injuries from the fight and he had to stop. He leaned against the tree and after a while sensed a threatening presence by him: it was Guitar. He started to strangle Milkman but at the last second, Milkman gave in, which woke Guitar up to his merciful side and he let Milkman live. He made his way back to the hunters who had caught a bobcat: they slaughtered it and cut it up; Milkman got the heart out of the cat with his bear hands (which must symbolize something). After they took the bobcat apart (ew) they sent Milkman to Sweet, a prostitute lady.
Chpater twelve was about the realization that Milklman's past was really important to him: it defines him. He finds out that he has relatives in the area and he goes to inquire about his ancestors. A woman named Susan Byrd tells him that there wasn't really any connection between Sing Byrd and his grandmother, also named Sing. This was in part due to the fact
that a gossip lady named Grace was there and she would have blabbed everything. Anyway, he leaves the house and finds Guitar leaning against the pole in a very aggressive position. He tells Milkman that he was mad that he had taken the gold for himself, when in reality he was just helping a white man with lifting a heavy box (which isn't like MM because he's very lazy). He goes back to the town and hears children singing a different version of the song that Pilate sang: Solomon instead of Sugarman (Title Reference!). He makes connections within the song about his ancestors: his grandfather's name was Solomon, his grandfather Jake, and his grandmother Singing Bird.
Chapter thirteen opens with a change in character focus: it switches to Hagar, how she has just been left by MM when she last held the knife over his head and he had very hurtful things to her. She becomes almost comatose with the shock of really losing him. She comes out of it when she realizes that he must not love her because she's ugly. She gets Reba and Pilate to spend their time and strength making her cleans and pawning Reba's ring for only a fifth of its worth to buy her clothes he'd never get to see her in. She kills herself from the depression. The town takes u p collection for her funeral because Pilate and Ruth had no money: Macon gives forty dollars, a gesture most unlike him. Pilate vows to kill MM for killing her baby.



Quotes for Chapter 11, pg 282: "'Your Day has come,' and it filled him with such sadness to be dying, leaving the world at the fingertips of his friend, that he realized and in the instant it took to surrender to the overwhelming melancholy he felt the cords of his struggle neck muscles relax too and there was a piece of a second in which the wire left him room to gasp, to take another breath. But it was a living breath, not a dying one ." I like this quote because it shows how MM was ready to surrender his life to his friend. He relaxed was was ready to die, but because he was ready, that was enough reason not to die.

Quotes for Chapter 11, pg 284: "Scared to death,' said Milkman." MM had just survived an attempt on his life and instead of replying that he was perfectly fine to the other men, he replied that he was scared. His character changed because he believed he could still be scared and remain masculine. Strength comes in many forms.

Quotes for Chapter 12, pg 306: "Jake the only son of Solomon...Whiled about and touched the sun...Left that baby in a white man;s house...Heddy took him to a red man's house...Black lazy fell down on the ground...Threw her body all around...Solomon and Ryna Belali Shalut...Nestor Kalina Saraka cake...Twenty-one children, the last one Jake!......" I love this song. It tells the whole history of MM's past, his ancestors, his unexplainable history.

Quotes for Chapter 12, pg 308:" Milkman was getting confused, but he was as excited as a child confronted with boxes and boxes off presents under the skirt f a Christmas tree. Somewhere in the pile was a gift for him." This quote stood out to me because it was a very nicely put was to explain the way Milkman was thinking about his family's past: it was a present for him to unwrap and cherish.

Quotes for Chapter 13, pg 309: "Did you ever see the way the clouds the mountain? They circle all around it; sometimes you can't see the mountain for the clouds. But you know what? You go up top and what do you see? His head. The clouds never cover his head...They let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him." This is a very pretty analogy to the way a prefect love should be. One that can be seen as a single entity, but it not being to close that they become a monotonous person with one brain. People should have their own unique identity.

Quotes for Chapter 13, pg 312: "Look at how I look. I look awful. No wonder he doesn't want me. I look terrible." I hate this. I hate how this is how Milkman made her feel: worthless. I wanted to slap him very hard when I read this.

Reflective Blog for Chapters 11-13

There is no denying that I am now one hundred percent hooked into this book. I wasn't at the beginning because things were going very slow, but now there is mystery and betrayal and love and death and treasure (<---Freight train!)
I was getting very exciting while reading chapter thirteen because it showed the first actual title reference. It had many title references actually. I counted four: the gas station owner, the other guy (not related to the gas station owner) also names Mr. Solomon, the kids singing the song "O Solomon don't leave me here" and then the true title reference of Solomon being MM's great grandfather. I also found out that his grandfather, Jake/Macon Dead, was married to a Native American woman named Singing Bird who changed her named to Sing Byrd. I thought it was very cute how both of them got to have fresh starts, beginning with the changing of their names.
The whole bit with the fight in the gas station kind of peeved me. I saw the side of the twon's people that they were angry and at MM for having money, but it's just another form of prejudice. I thought it was stupid of them to fight over something that neither of them could control.
I got super scared during the hunting scene with MM roaming through the dark with a bobcat running wild. What an idiot. And then Guitar just popping out of the darkness to strangle him just made me shut the book and wait until morning because there was no way I was gonna read that scene in the dark.
I thought the bit with Grace, a very old white woman, making a move on a thirty-something year old man was just disgusting. How she stole his watch to brag to her friends after leaving her address in his cookie napkin. It was icky.
I think I really really really dislike Milkman. He caused the death of Hagar when he abandoned her for no other reason than the fact that he just wanted to. There was no legitimate reason and he made her depressed enough to kill herself. How could he? It broke my heart how she didn't think she was good enough for him. I liked seeing the compassionate and gentle side of Guitar when he told her affirming and sweet things. I really really really don't like Milkman anymore. I can only hope for Pilate's retribution.

Active Blog For Chapters 7-10

Plot Summary:
Chapter seven opens up with an introduction to Milkman's urge to leave his landlocked city and be free to roam the country and the world. He is tired of working for his father and he wants to go out into the world and live life. Whilst inquiring his father if he could quit his job and leave for one year to "find himself", he lets it slip that he wouldn't use the money he'd borrow from his father like Pilate does, just sticks it into a bag and hangs it from her ceiling--her inheritance, she calls it. This sparks something in Macon's eyes and he tells Milkman the story of what happened after white men came and shot his father and they had to live life without a patriarch to guide them. He told how his father had a large piece of land and was illiterate, and how he accidentally signed a paper that gave the white men their property. He refused to move and was shot right in front of his own children. Evicted from the property, the homeless orphaned children went to Circe, the midwife who was working as a maid in the Butler house. This rich white family were the ones who killed their father, a fact Circe didn't tell them. She housed them there until they got too restless and then the children decided to go to Virginia to see if they still had family there. They left without notice into the wilderness where they saw constant reappearances of their father's ghost. He led them into a cave at night to keep them safe, and then left them. Macon Jr. woke up in the morning and saw an old white man sitting on the ground: Macon Jr. killed him with rocks and a knife. His father's ghost reappears again whispering, "Sing, sing," and then "melts away." There was a hole in the back of the cave filled with bags of gold which Pilate said they needed to leave alone and she fought him with the knife of make him leave the cave. Coming out of his reverie of telling his son the story, Macon Jr. tells Milkman to get the gold he believes Pilate is keeping in the green bag.
The beginning of chapter eight highlights Guitar's guilt and reluctance to participate in being the Sunday Man, being apart of the Seven Days. When four black girls were killed in a church bombing, Guitar had to retaliate and kill four white with the same type of murder techniques, and that was expensive. When Milkman comes and tries to get Guitar in on the plan to steal Pilate's gold, he was in from the get-go. While the two make plans to commit the felony, they spot a white peacock that distracts them from planning the crime, and instead they talk about what they'll do with the money. Guitar talks about spending it on nice clothes, but really with use it to purchase weapons for the Seven Days. Milkman decides he just wants the money so he can move away from his parents, sisters, Hagar, and the whole town. Milkman realizes that until Guitar really inspired an anger in him about how his life was just so easy compared to everyone else, he never thought the gold was really real. Once he got a taste of the possibly of not having to mooch off of his father for the rest of his life, he wanted to do the burglary immediately. He and Guitar waited until one in the morning and then they crept into Pilate's house and took down the bag that was much lighter than they expected a bag of gold to weigh. As the boys go off down the street, Pilate appears in the window and wonders what they wanted the bag for, foreshadowing that the bag may not be as precious to the two men as initially though.
In chapter nine, the character focus changes surprisingly from Milkman to his second oldest sister First Corinthians. She grew up as a very pretty, well mannered lady whose main job experience was making fake roses. She had gone to college and was very well educated for a woman in that time period. She was flirted with but no one whom her parents approved of really looked to marry her because she was smarter than them and she was weak willed. She decides to get out of the house and get a job since she is forty-two and her prospects have taken a very subtle halt. She doesn't want to go back to school to get a teaching degree, and she believes her last option is to become a maid to a Miss Michael-Mary Graham, who is an elderly poet. She teaches Corinthians how to type and how to speak a little French and to make her a more affluent citizen. One day on the bus, a man sits next to her and drops off a note written with poetry about being friends on her seat. They strike up conversations sometimes on the bus, and eventually he starts courting her. His name is Porter and he is apparently bad news: he was the man Macon was collecting rent from whilst he was threatening to kill himself if someone didn't send someone up to have sex with him (and it isn't found out until later that he is also part of the Seven Days). He invites her up into his room one day and she worries about her propriety and about her parents and subsequently is called a "doll baby", a child. She resents it and walks away from him in a rage, but comes to the realization that she'll never leave her parent's house if she doesn't go back to him. She does go back to Porter and he takes her to his room and has sex with her. He takes Corinthians home right before dawn, and as she enters the house the character focus changes back to Milkman who was arrested by the police for carrying bones around in a bag. Macon has to go bail them out (Milkman and Guitar) with bribes, but eventually the men tell the police they stole from Pilate and they bring her to the station for questioning. She tells them a story of how the bones are her husband's, whose name is Solomon (Title Reference!). When Macon gave her a ride back to her house, she told him how she left the bags in the cave when she left. She said her father's ghost stayed with her, telling her to "Sing, sing, sing." Then after Reba was born he told her to go get the bones because it was her responsibility. The next day Milkman went to talk to Guitar but he saw that he was meeting with the other Six of the Seven Days, one of whom was Porter, Corinthians' lover. He left without saying hi to his best friend to get drunk and to go home where Magdalene called Lena was there to confront her brother. She told him how she, Corinthians, and Ruth had slaved over his each and every whim since he was born and how he was ungrateful and hurtful and abusive and selfish: an exact replica of his father. She told him that she no longer going to be passive; she was going to be strong now and there he was going to respect her.
Chapter ten is about Milkman's journey back to the cave his father and aunt hid in after their father's death, where Macon killed a man, and where the gold was supposedly still sitting in a hole. Milkman is determined to find the gold to get away from the life he hates. He flies to Pittsburgh and rides the bus to the town of Danville to seek out Circe, the woman who cared for the children over fifty years ago. A reverend tells him she had died of old age and has his nephew drive him out to the country to search for the cave. At the Butler's house where Circe worked as a maid he found that Circe was still alive and living alone in the house with thirty dogs. She tells Milkman that his grandmother, the wife of the first Macon, whose real name was Jake, was called Sing, which causes one to rethink that when the ghost of Jake kept saying "Sing, Sing," he might have been calling his wife, not instructing a verb to take place. Milkman goes trekking through the forest in a hurry with the taste of having the gold within his reach and he has to wade through a deep creek and also climb a steep rock face before getting into the cave. There is nothing in the cave at all: just a pile of rocks and an empty hole. He gives up: he's hungry, exhausted, wet, sweaty, and he goes back to the road, but not before discovering an easy path that goes from the cave to the ground, a bridge to cross a shallow bit of the creek, and a walking path through the thick forest. He decides to go to Virginia, thinking that he'd follow Pilate's tracks to where he thinks she left the gold.


Magical Realism: When Milkman and Guitar go to steal the "gold" from Pilate's house, there is a scent that fills the air that physically shouldn't have been there. With a plastic factory's pollution running into the lake and with fish floating belly up, there was a smell like crystallized ginger and sweet tea that is described as a motivator to get the two men to burgle, keep them focused. There are three mentions of Macon and Pilate's father's ghost showing up to give them directions and advise. Another magical element was shown with Circe: she seems to have longevity, which is not normal for humans.

Themes:
A theme that sticks out to me is about flying: you have to get rid of all of the stuff that's holding you down before you can fly. A moral lesson that Milkman demonstrated was when he is so stubbornly focused on reaching the cave that while he hurries, he takes the most difficult path to the cave when there was a simple, easy path to the cave that was accessible to a more observant person. Basically, being driving by selfishness is very stupid. The other recurring underlying theme is Milkman's quest for identity.

Quote from Ch 7, page 167: "Macon and Pilate stayed there two weeks, not a day longer. He had been working hard on a farm since he was five or six years old and she was born wild." This quote describes the lives of the siblings in present day. Macon works and works and works, and Pilate is completely unpredictable.

Quote from Ch 7, page 171: "Life, safety, and luxury fanned out before him like the tail-spread of a peacock..." This is the beginning of Macon's constant hunger for money. This is the root: he thinks he can only find safety and contentment through money, and that's very unfortunate.

Quote from Ch 8, page 180: "Wanna fly, you got to give up that @#$% that weighs you down." For some reason, I think that this must be the theme of the whole story. Milkman has had the desire to fly since he was born and he's always concerned with materialistic and petty things. It's going to be interesting to see if he ever does get the chance to fly away.

Quote from Ch 8, page 184: "Well, if a man don't have a chance, then he has to take a chance." I think that this is a very good quote to live by when there seems to be no other options left. I'm not saying one has to be irrational every time a roadblock appears on the horizon, but it still holds ground with me personally.

Quote from Ch 9, page 208: "(She always called him Mr. Solomon cause he was such a dignified colored man)." This is the only title reference that has shown up in the book so far. Pilate calls him a dignified colored man, and Solomon from the Bible was the wisest man who ever lived, and he had dark skin.

Quote from Ch 9, page 215: "I forgot there were all kinds of ways to pee on people." Magdalene called Lena was bitter from when Milkman peed on her. She tolerated his petty whims but no longer: she is going to brush him off as important, just like he did to her (her version of peeing on him).

Quote from Ch 10, page 234: "The ways of God are mysterious, but if you live it out, just live it out, you see that it always work out." This particular quote stood out to me because it's one that I personally live by and I love that Toni Morrison wrote this in her novel. I have to wonder, however, if things will really work out for Milkman. You never know when it comes to fiction.

Quote from Ch 10, page 237: "Stop picking around the edges of the world. Take advantage, and if you can't take advantage, take disadvantage. We live here. On this planet, in this nation, in this country right here. Nowhere else!" This quote is what the farm and the land and the earth would supposedly being saying and I think it holds mounds of truth. We only have this one life to live, to be spontaneous and successful, and to take care of the earth. It's the motto of this generation.

Characters:
Milkman Dead: This man is insufferable. He is unintelligent, selfish and greedy, ungrateful, stubborn, deceitful and abusive. There are a couple good characteristics about him but I believe the whole point is to not like him...not yet, anyways. He seems to be getting worse and worse (in my opinion).
Macon Dead: Macon has basically stayed the same. He still exploits people (Milkman, Pilate, his renters, etc). He is greedy and is selfish enough to steal from his own sister and make his son do it for him.
Pilate Dead: She too has stayed the same. She is wild and unpredictable. Even when Milkman stole her only inheritance, she bailed him out of jail because she cares for him like he was her own child.
Guitar: Guitar is changing for the worse. He is becoming more and more irritable; he's blaming people for things he doesn't have the right to blame people for (ie. being mad at Pilate for not having the gold he wanted tried to steal). He's also drifting even more away from Milkman because his "hobby" of killing innocent people is making him feel guilty.
First Corinthians: Finally, after forty-two years of living on this planet, she decides to become an independent woman who can make her own money and decisions.
Magdalene called Lena: Lena steps out of her box as well. She won't take the men's crap anymore. She is thinking for herself and yet she'll never leave because she wants to protect her mother from her dad. She is a good person.
Hagar: She is mentioned in Chapter Eight to have become even more unstable over the months since Milkman dumped her.

Reflective blogs For Chapters 7-10

I'm really, really starting to appreciate this book. It's throwing out a couple good moral lessons, which is always a plus in my book. I hate the way the Milkman always gets what he wants without being grateful to his mother and sisters, and even his father, no matter how antagonistic he might be. Toni Morrison shows a character trait of Americans in general and how ungrateful most of the population can be.
When Macon was talking about his past (after his father was murdered), I was truly shocked to hear that he had murdered a man. An old white man who, for some reason, didn't seem to be that threatening. He was in the cave with them all night and didn't do anything to them so why did Macon have to kill them?
Another message was shown through Pilate's actions, how she refused to let Macon take the man's gold. Morrison is endorsing that stealing is bad, and I applaud her.
I'm extremely miffed with the Seven Days. They are a bunch of hypocrites for killing innocent white people in vengeance because their innocent people were killed without reason. I'm especially disappointed in Guitar because he grew up in a very poor home, an abandoned child who had to work hard to earn his living. His father was killed in a factory machine. I'm shocked that he can stomach stripping parents of their children, or children of their parents.
I was astonished to hear that the bag that was supposed to be heavy with gold did not weigh practically anything at all. I could tell something was wrong when Pilate wasn't worried that her inheritance was being stolen: she could have easily killed both of the men.
When Corinthians decided to take the initiative of her own life, I felt very proud of her. I know it must have been hard to have independence with a father like Macon. She was working hard and she got herself a boyfriend and that was great. Being a conservative, I didn't really appreciate the whole premarital sex scene with Porter, but I can't help that. She was growing a backbone and apparently that was good enough for her.
It was depressing to hear that her boyfriend was kicked out of his long-term residence and that Corinthians wasn't allowed to leave the house, all because Milkman told on her. He betrayed her and I don't blame Lena for slapping him and giving him a piece of her mind.
Toni Morrison uses a lot imagery and literary terms in her writing. The allusions she uses fit in very well when trying to connect dots (ie. page 221 with Hansel and Gretel). None of her words or thoughts or metaphors, etc, are cliche, and quite frankly, it's very refreshing.
There was a reference to the title when Pilate told the police that her husband, Solomon, was lynched in the south, and that she had to wait for his bones to drop from the tree in order to bury him, and then that cost too much money so she just dragged the bones around with her to be buried with her when she died.
A question I have has to do with Circe. I assume the name was chosen to allude to Homer's Odyssey where Circe was the evil witch because Circe in Song of Solomon seems to have the gift of longevity. Why hasn't she died yet??
My most basic feelings toward Milkman are dislike. He is so stinking selfish and stubborn and selfish. There are so many instances in these chapters where I feel like slapping him, just like Lena did. Why can't people see how they act towards other people and change? Why are humans so...mean? For someone who was trying to be the opposite of his father, he's doing a very bad job at it.
I also think it's a fool's errand for Milkman to go to Virginia to find the gold. I truly think that Pilate never took it and that when the Butlers came to put Macon Dead's body in the cave, they found the gold and took it for themselves. It seems like a "white person characteristic".
Basically, I'm officially peeved. I am upset with Milkman because he's stubborn and stupid, I'm mad at Guitar because he has no right to be killing innocent people and he's a hypocrite, I seriously dislike Macon because he's an abusive, power hungry man. The only people I'm not mad at are the women in this book: I feel sorry for all of them. Light bulb! This is a feminist book, isn't it?

Active Reading Blog for Chapters 3-6 (:

Plot Summary: Chapter three introduces the conflict of Milkman's identity issue in greater detail. The fact that he sleeps with Hagar is mentioned in such a way that it is too be assumed they've been in an off and on relationship for twelve whole years. That apparently boosts his appeal level with other girls and his confidence. However, he is affiliated with his father in intimate ways, being his only son, and is thus rejected by his community as harshly as can be while still being respectful of Macon. Milkman is revealed to have one leg shorter than the other, which may symbolize his shortcomings with his father. President Franklin D. Roosevelt feels like more of a father-figure than Macon does because he has a physical flaw, whilst Macon seems perfect and impregnable. Milkman does everything in his power to be the exact opposite of Macon by smoking, parting his hair, and giving away his money, things abhorred by Macon, and yet mentally emulates him in many ways: he inherited a love of his expensive home, respect, purpose, and control. Milkman actually hits his father when he slaps his mother because of her innocent foolishness. An unexpected thing happens: Milkman gets a clue of what goes through his father's mind every day when he tells Milkman that Ruth had sexual relations with her own father and that there was a question if Lena and Corinthians were really his daughters. When Milkman goes to talk with Guitar in town about this new information, he hears about a group of white men who kill an innocent black kid and are simply let loose with no reprimands. Guitar brushes off the question of why it was so important that the men talk about it in great heated discussions, and he says that they both thought differently and therefore did not have to be in each other's confidences.
In chapter four, Milkman decides to end his twelve year relationship with Hagar because, like the rest of his life, his passions with her simply faded and had gotten old. This inflames her to the point of wanting to murder Milkman because while his love of her dwindles, her passionate flames get bigger and bigger with each day. Later, Freddie talks to Milkman in his office, hinting that Guitar might be harboring a suspect accused of killing a white man and that he should ask his sister Corinthians for more information.
Chapter five talks about the numerous attempts on Milkman's life and how Hagar comes every thirtieth to kill him with some sort of sharp implement, but can never carry out the deed. He stays at Guitar's house and, like clockwork, Hagar comes with a butcher's knife to slaughter him, but can't bring herself to kill her true love, the one who had betrayed her. He tells her to, for lack of better words, get over herself and forget him. In a flashback shown while he waits for Hagar, Milkman had followed his mom late at night to the cemetery of her father and had gotten the full story his dad had manipulated him into believing: that Ruth was incestuous and her husband was a saint. She just wanted to be cared for, and the only one who did that was her father, and the only bridge that would connect her back to her husband after the doctor died would be a child, so she got some herbs from Pilate to get Macon in her bed again. It was short lived because Macon tries to abort Milkman in every possible way until his sister intervenes. Back in the present, Ruth goes to talk to Hagar to tell her not to kill her son unless she wanted her throat ripped out, but here Pilate also intervenes and shares her personal history to distract her from Hagar.
Chapter six reveals all about Guitar's strange and mysterious disappearances and friends he hangs around with. He tells Milkman that he is part of a secret group of African American bent on randomly picking out white people and slaughtering them; one of them for every black person killed randomly. Murdering innocence is not an issue for them because they believe that every white man is evil. Guitar is one of the seven killers, and his day is Sunday.

Magical Realism: Milkman tells Guitar that he had a dream of his mother coaxing plants to life, making them grown so big that they could engulf her entire body in leaves and petals, and she'd be laughing and having fun with her garden. The thing is that the book says that it really happened, that it was not a dream. Another instance of magical realism is when Freddie tells the story of how his mother was frightened by a ghost-bull into labor and how she died after giving birth to him. Pilate mentions that she talks to her father's ghost on a regular bases, and that she talks to other ghosts occasionally.

Theme: A theme that seems to be recurring is still one of finding out who you really are. On the night Milkman hit his father in the radiator and he went to talk to Guitar in town, everyone on the sidewalk was going in the same direction except for him going in the exact opposite way. Milkman applied this as a metaphor to his life.


Quote from Ch 3, page 61: "It's sweet, divinity is." This is said in the context to mean the candy, but then I was wondering. Did Guitar also mean that the position of being the influential person in control was sweet and satisfying?

Quote from Ch 3, page 77: "You want to be a whole man, you have to deal with the whole truth." This quote really spoke to me because a lesson that all people need to accept. You can't make really big decisions with biased information and history. All the facts have to be out on the table.

Quote from Ch 4, page 106: "He remembered that long-ago evening after he hit his father how everybody was crammed on one side of the street, going in the direction he was coming from. Nobody was was going his way." This is the theme that seems to be underlaying all of the problems that Milkman keeps facing: either everybody else is wrong, or he is.

Quote from Ch 4, page 111: "He don't talk. That don't mean he can't." I personally liked this quote because it says a lot about the human psyche and how it functions in self-defense, or how people can just assume things without evidence.

Quote from Ch 5, page 141: "People die then they want to and if they want to. Don't nobody have to die if they don't want to." In the context of this book, I think that this quote will come into play in many places. For example, it already has ground with Mr. Smith, Dr. Foster, and Macon Dead I.

Quote from Ch 5, page 149: "Finally Pilate began to take offense. Although she was hampered by huge ignorances, but not in any way unintelligent, when she realized what her situation in the world was and would probably always be she threw away every assumption she had learned and begun at zero." This quote stood out to me because it show to practicality of Pilate and it was reminiscent of her namesake. Pilate was wise and practical as he weighed what the people wanted and threw what he knew was right out the window. Pilate seems to be just as intelligent, but focused on doing what was right...for her.

Quote from Ch 6, page 157: "White people are unnatural. As a race they are unnatural. And it takes a strong effort of the will to overcome an unnatural enemy." Such malice was expressed in more or less the same exact words, except the only people I usually heard it from was from the white population. It's...surreal for me to hear the thoughts of African Americans who lived in that time. It certainly is an eye opener.

Quote from Ch 6, page 161: "It's no about living longer. It's about how you live and why. Its whether your children can make other children. It's about trying to make a world where one day while people will think before they lynch." From my perspective, I don't think murdering innocent whites would have stopped lynching. By the good example of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it seems as though the most effective strategy was through peace.

Milkman: He is now an adult who has physical relations with many women, is capable of hitting down his father, making his own money, and deciding what he wants to do with the rest of his life...which he hasn't made much progress with. He has tried unsuccessfully to be unlike his father; he's more like him than he'd like to admit. He's still bored with life because he has yet found a way to fly.
Hagar: She loves Milkman very much: She gave him her entire heart and he just threw it away after he got bored with her. Milkman used her and she wants her revenge. This is where her namesake comes into play: Abraham took Hagar to bed but was thrown out after his ninety year old wife finally bore a child.
Guitar: He cannot stand any sweets/candy because his father was sliced up and the only payment they got was candy. He feels a lack of justice in his life and because of that, he joins the Seven Days.
Ruth: Ruth is still a clueless, selfish, self-centered, protective, and gentle mother. She cares for her son because he's the only thing that keeps her connected to her husband.
Macon: As he gets older, he gives the facade that he's a man not to be trifled with, which is probably good advice to follow. Milkman does stand up to him however, and hits him, which makes him proud. He's a twisted traditionalist. He's still Dead to everything but money.
Pilate: She is still the wise old woman archetype, never in short supply of advise or a moral lesson to be told through a story. She's as feisty as a cat and she's still as witty as she was in her prime. She knows who she is and she doesn't need the material things her brother does to have a happy living.
Seven Days: A black activist-type gang of only seven people, each assigned a day to select at random a white person to kill in revenge for a black person who was killed on their day. It's a way to keep the population ratios steady and normal.

Reflective Blog for Chapters 3-6

After the ending of the third chapter, I found that I was actually hooked into reading Song of Solomon: a reaction that I was not expecting to have. I was picturing this book being written in the 70's and thus thought it would be extremely boring. It has become quite the opposite for me, even though it took me five hours to read an annotate.

I appreciate the theme of this book because I can completely relate to it. Milkman is living in the magnificent and intimidating shadow of his father, Macon Dead II, and is struggling to find his own identity. As he grows up--which he admits takes him until his early thirties to do so--the book says that he isn't embracing life, how everything in life just seems boring to him. I do not like the fact that he's doing silly, useless things to occupy his time, like keeping the job he despises, sleeping with multiple partners whilst still being "with" Hagar, and treating his family members as though they don't deserve to have their own personalities.
I was proud, however, of Milkman when he stands up to his father and knocks him down when he hits Ruth. It was unsettling to hear Macon's side of the story of Ruth's father's death and I was starting to waver sides until in the next chapter I found out that Macon basically killed her father by throwing out the medicine keeping him alive. Basically, things eventually go back to normal with Macon being the bad guy and Ruth the victim.
I was happy to see some physical magical realism in the fifth chapter when Pilate talks about her life growing up. Apparently she not only talks to her father's ghost, but others' too.
Another exciting things was when connections with the Biblical names of the characters started to click and match with their namesakes. It was heartbreaking, what happened with Hagar, and what was even more sad was that I saw it coming. When she got dumped by Milkman, I could tell she wanted revenge, but I didn't think she'd try to kill him...multiple times. I felt so sorry for her as a character. Is sucks that with a name like Hagar, the events of her Biblical namesake's history would somewhat thread itself with hers. I suppose we're to expect that with the rest of the characters.
I was again shocked to find out that the racism during that era was incredibly violent and horrible, even little children not being spared. I do not agree with the whole concept of the Seven Days because I somewhat believe in the saying "Why kill people who kill people to prove that killing people is wrong?" A question that is itching at me is that even though Guitar said he didn't like killing, he does it anyway to keep the population ratios stable. I wonder if he'll end up killing Milkman in the classic best friend-turned-evil plot, because he certainly gets enough practice?
There was revelation given by Guitar about Mr. Smith, the insurance agent, and why he jumped off the roof. He told Milkman that he had committed suicide because killing the innocent, even white innocence, became too much for him to handle. It's sad that Guitar and the rest of his race became so hard against the whites, even though they did deserve it. There was just too much inhumanity going on during that and the previous centuries.

Reflective Blog for Chapters 1-2

I started reading "Song of Solomon" a bit apprehensively because, quite frankly, I wasn't too thrilled about having to read magical realism. I'm still not quite appeased with this genre, but I'm not completely turned away from this particular book. It was exciting to hear of a man whose only purpose in life was to collect money from people who couldn't pay, shed away that life and reach for higher things...literally. I was quite shocked when Mr. Smith jumped off the hospital building with FAKE wings because I was so excited to see the magic aspect come into play, but alas, it was a letdown to see that the man's wings were not real and that he fell to his death. It was quite depressing.
Things seemed to stay monetary with a dreary tone: a family had to suffer both physical and verbal abuse from a husband and father, the town's excitement came by way of juicy gossip... It was quite frustrating because it took me two whole hours to read two chapters of the same tone.
UNTIL I found out that the mother, Ruth Dead, was breast feeding her son well past infancy. I had to wonder if this woman was right in her head. I thought that the nickname "Milkman" was quite harsh because it wasn't his fault that his mother was seeking solace in something she thought she had control over: her baby boy growing up.
Another random thing that peeved me was that one of the daughters of Macon Dead Jr. is named Magdalene, and is introduced, literally, as "Magdalene called Lena." This retarded thing is that they actually NEVER call her Lena.
Back to the actual events: I think that the overall character of Macon Jr. is that of a pig. I mean, his wife sets out new flowers on the table, and all he does is criticize her food. He bans their kids from seeing a sister without a plausible reason, he won't give a break to an old woman who is forced to take care of her daughter's kids and can't make the rent, and then he would let a man kill himself just as long as he got his money. It's infuriating.
What I don't understand is why is Pilate such a threat to Macon? He calls her unkempt and inappropriate when, in reality, she never drinks the wine she sells, and though she is unkempt, is a fairly clean woman.
Another thing I question is whether or not the man with wings (Mr. Robert Smith) is a catalyst? I mean, there has got to be a greater purpose for this man other than coincidently jumping off the roof of the same hospital that Milkman is born in. Is he going to show up again in the story as a ghost, like Pilate and Macon's father? I think perhaps he might.
There has been no reference to the title yet, and it's starting to annoy me. I don't even know what the book is about and the title is just adding to the mystery.

Active Blog for Chapters 1-2

Plot Summary: Chapter one opens up the story immediately with a scene of magical realism. On Wednesday, February 18, 1931, an insurance agent named Robert Smith jumps off of Mercy Hospital with large blue silk wings attached to his body and plummets to his death. Witnessing his passionate leap, a pregnant African American woman is told that her baby will be born the next morning by her sister-in-law, Pilate (wise-old woman archetype). There is a sense of profound fluidity of coincidences because Mr. Smith's insurance office is located on Not Doctors Street, known for the only African American doctor, Dr. Foster, who once lived there. The hospital that Mr. Smith jumps off of is known as No Mercy Hospital because until Ruth Foster Dead was admitted to give birth, they did not allow in African American patients. Consequently, Ruth is Dr. Foster's daughter. The next day, as prophesied by the old woman, Ruth gives birth to a son who is named Macon Dead III. At the age of four, little Macon discovers that, like Mr. Smith, man cannot fly and thus becomes explicitly depressed and dull. It is revealed that Dead house is more of a prison than an actual house because Macon Jr. is an extremely violent father and husband. The only two things that get Ruth through the day are to polish an irremovable water stain on their dinner table, and to breast feed Macon, long after his infancy. A nosy neighbor dubs him with a new name that sticks despite his father refusing to acknowledge it, and that name is "Milkman." The second chapter takes place in the same place, however, it is four through eight years later, the majority of the time being when Milkman is twelve years old. It is then when he and his best friend, Guitar, who is five years older, decide to go see his aunt Pilate who he is forbidden to see. There is a strong brother-sister archetype with Macon Jr. and Pilate. At Pilate's house, they meet her daughter, Reba, and her daughter, Hagar, whom Milkman instantly falls in love with. Freddie-the-nosy-neighbor tattles on Milkman and gets him in trouble with his dad-which surprisingly leads to a beginning of sorts with Macon and his son (father-son archetype). His father ends up telling him his life's story and motives, which gives Milkman a peek into his father's life he'd never had before.

Magical realism isn't as easily identifiable here: the only thing that sticks out is that Mr. Smith has wings--except that they're fake. Another thing is that Pilate says that when she and Macon Jr. were lost in a forest near their farm when they saw the ghost of their father, Macon Dead I. Pilate's daughter Reba is evidence of magical realism because she wins every contest she ever entered.

A theme that seems to be reoccurring is one of identity. Milkman loses part of his when he discovers he can't fly, and starts to find it when he learns his history from his classmates, neighbors, relatives, and his father. Milkman also seems to get most of his affirmation from his friend Guitar (only likes his name when Guitar likes it). This could hint to a theme of having to self discover who you are.

Ch 1 Quote from page 5: "In any case, whether or not the little insurance agent's conviction that he could fly contributed to the place of her delivery, it certainly contributed to its time." Because of man who had jumped off the roof of a community hospital, they admitted their first ever African-American into the wards to give birth instead of having her baby on the steps. Does this hint to Mr. Smith being a catalyst because it brought on the timing of the woman giving birth? I think perhaps it might.

Quote from ch1, page 9: "To have to live without that sing gift saddened him and left his imagination so bereft that he appeared dull even to the women who did not hate his mother." It seems as though flying is really part of who Milkman is as a person if it had this effect on him, to leave him without imagination and a purpose in life.

Quote from ch 2, page 35: "It was becoming a habit—this concentration on things behind him. Almost as though there were no future to be had." Another indication that his past indicates who he is...maybe like, through his ancestors.

Quote from ch 2, page 43: "...Milkman had no need to see her face; he had already fallen in love with her behind." This quote may show that he is fickle as a character, or maybe this is true love...

Macon "Milkman" Dead III- He is the main protagonist of the story who is struggling with his identity.

Macon Dead II- He is the father of Milkman. He is a very motivated person who's main purpose in life seems to be acquiring money.

Ruth Foster Dead- She is the wife of Macon II and the mother of Milkman. She breast feeds Milkman until his feet nearly touches the floor while holding him, earning the boy his fairly appropriate nickname.

Pilate Dead- She is the sister to Macon Jr. and is a bootlegger that the town wholly disapproves of. She's off limits from the Dead family because her brother refuses to make amends. Name comes from the Bible, which she cut out of the Holy book, stuck in a brass box, and made into an earring. She has no husband.

Rebecca "Reba" Dead- She is the daughter of Pilate and mother of Hagar. She is extremely lucky because she wins every contest she enters. She is very fickle because she usually gives away her earnings.

Hagar Dead- The daughter of Reba is sixteen in the second chapter and forms a bond (unknowingly to her) with Milkman.

Guitar Bains- He is introduced in chapter one to be a very intelligent young man who knows how to phonetically spell "admissions." He and his family seem to have migrated from the south to the north because he is just learning how to speak without as much reserve to white people. Later in chapter two, he is a young man who seems to still have that intelligence.