A Deliberate Creation

I began reading Song of Solomon a few hours after a discussion in my Spanish class about drafting novels. We were talking about Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, which involves many allusions, historical events, a criminal investigation and several plots, and even though we were all amazed that he spent around ten years writing the book, it actually seems reasonable. A good novel isn't just an amusing story but rather one that has no unnecessary parts because all construct the author's main ideas. As I began reading Toni Morrison's novel, admittedly with the help of the author's foreword, I could see that she chose every single detail deliberately to build up the plot and, I presume, critique something.

The opening line, as Morrison states in the foreword, is not just a brief narration I would likely go over quickly. She writes, "The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance agent promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at three o'clock." Morrison explains that she was mocking journalistic writing as she gave important signs or clues (like Eco). "North Carolina"and "Lake Superior" suggest a trip from south to north, the company's name is important because of "mutual" and "life," which apparently will mean something, and because it's owned by someone Black. As you continue to read you soon realize the importance of "Mercy" and Mr. Smith's story.

I began reading looking for signs or symbolism in the plot, perhaps motivated by the foreword, and although I don't understand some of them, I've seen that the book has a complex plot and meaning. One of the first things I noticed was the meaning of the names. The names have meanings, like Dead to show how life was miserable for them and that when Ruth became Dead, she joined Macon's sort of sad lifestyle, but what  I found interesting about them was the situation that lead to their existence. Many African Americans got their last names from slave owners many generations ago and have inherited since the unaffectionate designations. They had to "abide by a naming done to them by somebody who couldn't have cared less," (pg. 18)'s Morrison writes it. So far in the book, it is clear that Morrison will explore African American identity and the ambiguity in the lives of people like the Deads, separated from other Blacks by their wealth. Both Ruth and Macon have lived different lives from most African Americans around them but they keep looking back at their past. While she tries to hold on to something through her afternoons breastfeeding Milkman or her comfort when looking at the tablecloth's watermark, Macon had a hard childhood that makes his family be dead-like. The book shows African American reality through a broad spectrum clearly beyond the conventional depictions.

Song of Solomon has an interesting beginning that introduces several themes I adequately don't understand or even spot right on but I like the way Morrison begins to present them. The plot is amusing and, so far, insightful into the history of African Americans.