Toni Morrison employs some historical events and personnel thoughts into her novel Song of Solomon. While there was fights for racial equality during Toni Morrisons life where she might have experienced some of it, there is some fights for equality seen by Guitar. He himself becomes very into some aspects of the civil rights movement, specifically in the Seven Days. Milkman also dreams of finding out his past and actually leads us into his past. Milkman in a way also rebels against his father by hitting him and deciding not to join the family business with his father. Writers have always been concerned with the freedom of the human spirit, whether through dreaming, solitude, or rebellion. This statement is illustrated in Song of Solomon through Guitar and Milkmans quests in the novel.
Guitar at the beginning of the book is just a curious teenager who starts getting interested in the civil rights movement. He gets very enraged speaking about the racism that goes on and he exaggerates about how bad it is. Morrison allows Guitar to have freedom of his human spirit through rebellion. He does what he believes in. No love? No Love? Didnt you hear me? What Im doing aint about hating white people. Its about loving us. About loving you. My whole life is love (p.159). Milkman does not have too much confidence in this group he joins and does not believe in it either. Guitar wants to pay back the whites for what they have done to the black people. Well let them know. Let white people know. Like the Mafia or the Klan; frighten them into behaving (p.158). This reveals the freedom of human spirit that many writers are concerned with. He is a free human spirit because he goes on with his beliefs in rebellion. There is also a racism factor going into this because Morrison grew up during a time of black struggle against whites so she incorporated part of her life into this aspect as well. She employed this into her book to show her own freedom of human spirit, one could believe that she strongly advocated the civil rights through her use of racism and the seven days in the novel.
Milkman on the other hand has freedom of human spirit in dreaming about his past life and going after his dream to find out the truth. He goes on a quest to find out about his past life and starts out by going to see Pilate to ask about his fathers life although his father specifically asked him not to go near Pilate which can sensed as rebellion against his father. He goes on a mission to find out the rest of his familys past and ends up in Virginia to find it out. Morrison allows Milkman to make this quest in the novel because she herself can relate back to this freedom of human spirit. She actually went to find out about her family down in some southern state as well. Her dream was to find out about her own family history and she includes it into Milkmans life to reiterate her own experiences in going out there and living life.
In Songs of Solomon the concerning of freedom of the human spirit is shown through Milkman and Guitar. Guitar is a free spirit in the way he rebels against whites in fighting for equal rights in violent ways. Morrison uses Guitar to give a little of her own opinion of the problem of racism that was occurring during her time. Milkman is used to portray the dream of finding out about his past life and fulfilling that desire. He is a free spirit because he goes out in the world to find what he wants. Morrison shows her free spirit through Milkman in showing her own experiences. The freedom of the human spirit is shown throughout characters in the Song of Solomon and those characters exemplify Morrisons own freedom of spirit.
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