Essay On The Dead Family In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is a novel that is set in the 20th century, Michigan which follows the life of Macon Dead III, who gets the nickname milkman. His sisters are Magdalene, who is called Lena, and First Corinthians. His parents are Ruth and Macon Dead Jr. Unlike most African American families during this time period, the Dead family were financially stable and could afford things that were deemed luxurious. Even though they had money, they still were unhappy with their lives. This shows that you can be living ,but you can also be dead. The word dead generally means that a person is no longer living ,but another meaning is that one is deprived of life. The dead family is deprived of life because they are unlucky to experience the joys of happiness. You are truly unhappy if money is the only thing you care for.

The names of many characters signify their personality, and many of the various things that they will do. For example, First Corinthians Dead is Milkman’s sister that tries to help people make a compromise. She was named after The First Epistle to the Corinthians which told of Paul the Apostle who ended the quarrels of people

Many of the names were chosen from the bible on the day of a child’s birth. Letting God choose a child’s name shows a level of faith in the parents which often results in awkward and weird names. The use of the name, Magdalena called Lena, is similar to the phrasing in the bible in names like Simon called Peter. Toni Morrison put a lot of emphasis into the characters' names in Song of Solomon. The main characters' last name of Dead has a lot of emphasis. The first man in the family that was named Dead ended up being murdered. Guitar repeated uses the joke, “You can’t kill someone that is already dead. The names have a greater meaning and Toni Morrison wants her readers to get a similar understanding, or any understanding out of them at