Theme Of Flight In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

While going through life one might find it difficult and see that they do not know where they are going. But yet Mark Twain once stated "The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why . The book Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison shows readers many life struggles through the eyes of the characters and how they improved later. Song of Solomon is about a man named Macon Dead the third, nicknamed Milkman, finding out about himself and his family throughout the story. Milkman does this by going on a journey into his family's past to backtrack to his grandfather, Macon Dead the first, to find out his family’s past. He does this with the help of many people along the way including his best friend Guitar, his father, Macon Dead the second, and his aunt, Pilate Dead. Throughout the novel, readers will see many references to flight. Flight is a crucial part to both developing of the story and developing of the theme. Throughout Song of Solomon, Morrison develops the theme that no matter how long it takes, the flight of the soul will lead to a better life.

Morrison first shows readers Robert Smith’s life. Morrison does this when she writes, “They kidded him, abused him, told their children to tell him they were out or sick or gone to Pittsburgh.” (Morrison, 14). From this sentence readers can already develop a sense of what life was like for Smith. Horrible, shameful, and grueling. Because of this, Smith looks to take his soul on a flight to have a less grueling, shameful, and horrible life. Next, Morrison describes the length of time between when Smith decides to fly and when he actually does. Morrison does this through imagery when she writes, “They stood this way for some time, none of them crying out to Mr. Smith, all of them preoccupied with one or the other of the minor events about them, until the hospital people came.” (12) Morrison gives readers a time scale of how long Smith has been trying to fly by using the image of a crowd gathering in the place of where Smith is trying to fly and how long it they have been standing there. This further helps readers further develop theme of no matter how long it takes, the flight of the soul will always lead to a better life by portraying how long it can take a soul to fly. Lastly, Morrison makes the soul fly to a better life. “Downtown the firemen pulled on their greatcoats, but when they arrived at Mercy, Mr. Smith