Song of SolomonChapters 6-10

Flight Image of the Peacock =

money/gold “Can’t nobody fly with all that shit”

(179). Milkman soils his expensive

clothes and loses his suitcase

Flight Milkman enjoys the luxury and

exhilaration of the plane ride He is tired after the grounded bus

ride

Identity Corinthians calls herself an

“amanuensis” to protect her identity

“Sing” becomes not a command but an identity

Identity The gold becomes Milkman’s

obsession He smells, hears, and sees money

as an apotheosis Ownership of money/gold becomes

ownership of a name/identity

Identity Milkman trades the search for

treasure for a search for identity His father grasped after “a bit of

filling” (63) from the white man’s pie, but his grandfather took hold and grabbed something more significant

Identity With the Seven Days, Guitar

becomes “Sunday” Death becomes an act of love and

preservation for the black race Despises Pilate’s submission to

whites

Identity Guitar is a “natural-born hunter”

(85). He must kill little girls yet he

protects the “does”: Ruth and Hagar

Coming of Age Milkman declares “I want to be on

my own” (163) His identity is purely as Macon’s son He pleads a year of independence

to find his own identity (sound familiar?)

Pilate and Lena inspire shame in him

Fathers and Sons Macon buries his own father Pilate and Macon see visions of

him Macon’s father’s body returns to

the cave

Fathers and Sons Milkman is regaled with legends of

his grandfather (Macon Dead/Jake) Milkman embellishes the legends

of his own fatherMarriage to the best black womanAttempt to purchase the Erie-

Lackawana

Singing and Songs The stories become the songs:

Reverend Cooper and the old black men preserve the oral tradition

Milkman glows with pride for his exceptional family history

Female Roles Circe is a midwife who delivered

every black child She is apparently an immortal

witch with power over beasts

Female Roles Pilate is so connected to the earth

that she cries indoors She possesses sorceress

capabilities of shape-shifting into a diminutive “Aunt Jemima”

Female Roles Corinthians represents the over-

educated black woman Doomed to sterility, “unfit for

eighty percent of the useful work of the world” (189), she is a “doll baby” (196).

Female Roles Milkman’s sisters are defined as

either virgins or whores Corinthians swaps her pride for a

fulfilling sexual awakening Magdalena merely staves off

insanity