Song of Solomon

Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon was published in 1977. Since then, the novel has won many awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (1978). Morrison later won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel Beloved (1988) and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993). Song of Solomon, Morrison’s third novel, follows the life of Milkman Dead, who uncovers the truth (the “song”) about his family when he travels south to Virginia. Using aspects of magical realism, Morrison’s novel examines the “flights,” as well as the inability to fly and the consequences of flight, for various characters across four generations, beginning with Solomon, Milkman’s great-grandfather who escaped slavery by flying to Africa.

This study guide refers to the 2004 First Vintage International Edition.

Plot Summary

Macon Dead III, known as Milkman for most of his life, is the son of Macon Dead Junior and Ruth Foster Dead. He has two sisters, First Corinthians and Magdalena, known as Lena. The family lives an upper-middle-class life in an unnamed suburb of Michigan. Despite their wealth and privilege, Milkman’s mother would not normally be allowed to give birth in Mercy Hospital because she is Black and the hospital is for White people only. However, her labor pains are triggered right in front of the hospital by the startling sight of a man who is about to commit suicide by “flying” off the hospital roof. In 1931 Mercy opens its doors to its first Black patient, and Milkman is born.

Part 1 describes the first 34 years of Milkman’s life. He lives an alienated, passive existence from an early age. Because his family is wealthier than the families of his Black peers (Ruth’s father was a well-respected doctor and Milkman’s father is a landlord), Milkman finds himself cut off from other children. Milkman is also alienated from his own family. His sisters are much older than he is, and his parents have a difficult marriage full of resentment, which often takes the form of the father’s verbal and physical abuse of the mother. Milkman’s solace comes from his friendship with Guitar, who is four years older than Milkman and who acts as a mentor to Milkman.

Another mentorship is formed when Milkman meets his aunt Pilate, his father’s sister. His father and aunt are estranged; the father despises Pilate and her unconventional ways. Pilate lives with her daughter Reba and granddaughter Hagar in a house without electricity, making their living by producing cheap wine. But Milkman is drawn to Pilate’s simple home, and Milkman and Guitar visit often. As Milkman grows older, he begins a 12-year sexual relationship with Hagar, even though they are cousins. Milkman doesn’t take the relationship seriously, but Hagar does. When Milkman finally breaks off the relationship when they are both in their 30s, Hagar becomes mentally unstable and tries to kill Milkman repeatedly, always unsuccessfully.

Part 2 shifts the setting of the novel as Milkman journeys to find the gold that his father thinks is in a Pennsylvania cave. The father and Pilate hid in that cave when they were children after their father was murdered. Macon was caught by surprise when he discovered an old White man sleeping in the cave, and he ended up killing the man. After the killing, he found gold in the cave, but Pilate refused to let Macon take the dead man’s gold, which began their estrangement.

When Milkman travels to Pennsylvania, he is warmly greeted by people who knew both his father and grandfather. When he discovers there is no gold in the cave, he thinks that Pilate must have taken the gold to Virginia, the home of his grandparents, so he travels there next. He is not warmly welcomed the way he was in Pennsylvania. His obvious wealth triggers resentment, and he gets in a fight with some younger men. But after the fight, some of the older men invite him to join them on a hunt.

The hunt is a transformative experience for Milkman, who feels at one with nature and reflects on the trajectory of his life. During this epiphany, he is ambushed by Guitar, who has tracked him down and tries to strangle him because he thinks Milkman has hidden the gold and won’t share it with him. Guitar needs the gold because he is a member of the Seven Days, a secret society of seven Black men who are dedicated to avenging the deaths of Black men, women, and children who were murdered by White people. Guitar is tasked with avenging the deaths of the four girls killed in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, and he needs the gold to pay for explosives. But Guitar is unsuccessful in killing Milkman, and Milkman escapes.

Milkman never finds the gold; instead, he finds a larger treasure. By talking to the locals, he discovers the truth of who his ancestors were. He learns his great-grandfather was a mythic figure named Solomon who was believed to have flown to Africa. His grandfather was a man named Jake who married a Native American named Sing, and who traveled with her from Virginia to Pennsylvania. Eager to share this knowledge with his family, Milkman rushes home to tell Pilate first.

But Pilate attacks Milkman when he returns, hitting him on the head with a wine bottle. Milkman soon understands that she did so because Hagar committed suicide and Pilate blames Milkman. Milkman accepts that he must carry the burden of what he has done. When he shares with Pilate the truth of the past, Pilate finds peace and wants to return to Virginia with Milkman. She wants to bury the bag of bones that she has been carrying since she was 12 years old. All this time she thought they were the bones of the White man Macon killed, but Milkman tells her they are the bones of her father.

Back in Virginia, Milkman and Pilate find a place to bury Pilate’s father. But as they bury the bones, Pilate is struck by a bullet intended for Milkman. Milkman realizes Guitar has found them, and he grieves for the dying Pilate. But rather than attack Guitar in anger, he turns to him in love, offering his life. In the final act of the book, he flies toward Guitar.