Literary Criticism Module: "Myth as Structure in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon" by A. Leslie Harris

We would expect our modern predilection for scientific fact, psychological speculation, and historical verification to have supplanted the role of myth in explaining reality.

We would expect our modern predilection for scientific fact, psychological speculation, and historical verification to have supplanted the role of myth in explaining reality.

Even our sophistication, however, does not preclude our depending on myth for more than entertainment.

She does not simply rework archetypes but blends the natural with the supernatural and the historically factual with the fantastic.

More particularly, she selects one of the oldest and most pervasive mythic themes, the hero and his quest, to inform and control her narrative structure.

Her deft handling of high drama, low comedy, and dialogue have all been commended.

Song of Solomon is undeniably episodic, but whether the plot is “meandering and confused,” lacks linear development, or is enhanced by its very discontinuity is open to question.

Song of Solomon is undeniably episodic, but whether the plot is “meandering and confused,” lacks linear development, or is enhanced by its very discontinuity is open to question.

If we follow Morrison’s lead and concentrate on the growth of Macon Dead, known as Milkman because his mother nursed him too long, we find that her novel is cohesive, following the clear pattern of birth and youth, alienation, quest, confrontation, and reintegration common to mythic heroes as disparate as Moses, Achilles, and Beowulf.

If we follow Morrison’s lead and concentrate on the growth of Macon Dead, known as Milkman because his mother nursed him too long, we find that her novel is cohesive, following the clear pattern of birth and youth, alienation, quest, confrontation, and reintegration common to mythic heroes as disparate as Moses, Achilles, and Beowulf.

Such a mythic chronology emphasizes the hero’s rejection of and eventual assimilation into his society.

In the novel’s opening Morrison toys with this idea by describing Milkman’s birth in terms of signs, omens, and portents, and by presenting Milkman’s childhood in a rapidly-passed-over series of narrative events resonating with symbolic and archetypal significance.

In the novel’s opening Morrison toys with this idea by describing Milkman’s birth in terms of signs, omens, and portents, and by presenting Milkman’s childhood in a rapidly-passed-over series of narrative events resonating with symbolic and archetypal significance.

His recognition that he is just drifting and lacks both internal and external coherence in his life directs him toward his third stage of development—a quest.

This enemy is his boyhood friend and adult nemesis, Guitar, who objectifies Milkman’s own denial and despair.

The confrontation with Guitar in the Pennsylvania woods represents Milkman’s complete reintegration and triumph, so that the Lady-or-the-Tiger quality of an ending that stops as the two combatants meet for a fight to the death is less ambivalent than it appears.

The digressions, explanations, and expansions which interrupt Milkman’s own story suggest not a serial or chronological unfolding but an interlace, in which the dominant narrative is embellished and enhanced through meticulously articulated subplots and images threading their way through Milkman’s life.

The digressions, explanations, and expansions which interrupt Milkman’s own story suggest not a serial or chronological unfolding but an interlace, in which the dominant narrative is embellished and enhanced through meticulously articulated subplots and images threading their way through Milkman’s life.

It is these embellishments which carry much of the burden of the myth.

The young hero is traditionally born after a long period of barrenness, and
subterfuge is frequently involved in both his conception and his delivery.

These mythic parallels are, however, only the basis for Morrison’s highly allusive narrative.

Henceforth, the motifs of Icarus and flight are inextricably connected to the vengeance of the Seven Days.

Henceforth, the motifs of Icarus and flight are inextricably connected to the vengeance of the Seven Days.

Through the use of the Icarus motif, the opening of the book draws together the thematic concerns of a novel, but the second stage of Milkman’s growth, the period of both explanation and alienation, illustrates one of the enduring concerns of myth, the need to create order and bring understanding out of
apparent chaos.

He tells Guitar that he feels increasingly off-center, disaffected by his family and society, and detached from the racial tensions which increasingly control
Guitar, who is moving more completely into the circumscribed world of the Seven Days.

He tells Guitar that he feels increasingly off-center, disaffected by his family and society, and detached from the racial tensions which increasingly control
Guitar, who is moving more completely into the circumscribed world of the Seven Days.

The single moment during this period of Milkman’s life which best illustrates both his yearnings and his vacillation occurs when Milkman and Guitar see a white peacock perched on the roof of a defunct Buick in Southside.

Although Milkman laughingly accedes to Guitar’s jeering interpretation, he is fumbling toward a more positive significance for the peacock—escape into adventure.

But he does not see that the incongruous juxtaposition of the peacock and used cars suggests how the exotic appears unexpectedly out of the prosaic, just as his quest rises out of Southside and his family.

But he does not see that the incongruous juxtaposition of the peacock and used cars suggests how the exotic appears unexpectedly out of the prosaic, just as his quest rises out of Southside and his family.

But he does not see that the incongruous juxtaposition of the peacock and used cars suggests how the exotic appears unexpectedly out of the prosaic, just as his quest rises out of Southside and his family.

Milkman is still not ready to challenge the enemy, and when Guitar’s ambush in the Virginia woods fails, the protagonist runs.

The death is less important than its symbolic affirmation of his and his world’s values.

Milkman, too, has to face, within himself, the dragons of despair, nihilism, and sterility.

As fleet and bright as a lodestar he wheeled toward Guitar and it did not matter which one of them would give up his ghost in the killing arms of his brother.