"Song of Solomon" (1977): Overview and Links
The Dead family is settled in a fictional city in Michigan on Lake Erie that loosely resembles Detroit. The main protagonist of the novel is a character referred to as Milkman Dead, though his formal name is Macon Dead, Jr. The novel follows him and traces vexed relationships with his family members, including his father and mother, his three sisters, and his aunt and her daughter and granddaughter.
As the plot progresses, we see Milkman leave Michigan to trace the path of his grandfather's journey, including the farm he had settled, in Danville, Pennsylvania, and before that, the predominantly-Black town of Solomon in rural western Virginia. Milkman is ostensibly looking for gold that may have been deposted in a cave shortly after after his grandfather was murdered, but over time he becomes much more interested in learning all of the contours of his family's legacy, including his grandfather's true name (Jay Solomon) and heritage and his grandmother's identity.
As he learns the details of this family history, Milkman is shadowed by his friend Guitar Bains, who believes Milkman may have found the missing treasure and absconded with it.
Themes and Historical Reference Points
Song of Solomon is an incredibly rich novel, with many themes that could be discussed, including: the troubled status of Black masculinity and relationships between men and women in mid-20th century America; the importance of naming and misnaming in Black life; the value of non-conforming women; our obligations to the dead, especially the ancestral dead; the emergence of Black militant movements in northern cities in mid-20th century U.S.; among othres.
One key historical reference point in the novel is the killing of Emmett Till (August, 1955) and the subsequent acquittal of his killers (September, 1955), which is directly discussed by Milkman and Guitar at an early point in the novel. Emmett Till was a fourteen year old African American boy born and raised in Chicago. He was visiting family members in Mississippi when he encountered a white woman named Carolyn Bryant in a grocery store. Later, he was abducted by Bryant's husband and his half-brother and murdered.
Till's lynching and subsequent acquittal were national news stories, and helped galvanize the Civil Rights movement. Till's story also inspired a play by Toni Morrison in 1986, called Dreaming Emmett. That play was performed at a theater in Albany, but subsequently destroyed by Morrison and it has never been republished.
In Song of Solomon, the news of Till's murder infuriates Guitar Bains, who eventually joins a shadowy militant group called the Seven Days. Bains and other members of the Seven Days are particularly angry about the way racialized violence constitutes a threat to Black masculinity.
Naming and Misnaming
Naming and misnaming are ubiquitous themes in Song of Solomon.