Shame in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 37: Shame had flooded [Milkman]. He had expected to feel it, but not that kind; to be embarassed, yes, but not that way. [Pilate] was the one who was ugly, dirty, poor, and drunk. The queer aunt whom his sixth-grade schoolmates teased him about and whom he hated because he felt personally responsible for her ugliness, poverty, her dirt, and her wine.



Questions:1) If Milkman isn't responsible for Pilate's poverty and dirt, who is? Macon Dead? Pilate herself?

Shame in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 77Then [Milkman] heard something that he knew was related to the picture. Laughter. Somebody he couldn't see, in the room laughing . . . at him and at his mother, and his mother is ashamed. She lowers her eyes and won't look at him. "Look at me, Mama. Look at me." But she doesn't and the laughter is loud now.

Shame in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 194: Corinthians knew she was ashamed of him, that she would have to add him to the other secret, the nature of her work, that he could never set foot in her house. And she hated him a lot for the shame she felt. Hated him sometimes right in the middle of his obvious adoration of her . . . But those swift feelings of contempt never lasted long enough for her to refuse those drive-in move sessions where she was the sole object of someone's hunger and satisfaction.



Questions:1) Is Corinthians 'using' Mr. Porter? Is her behaviour equivalent to the way Milkman and Guitar use their female friends for sex?

Domestic Violence in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 67Macon didn't wait to put his fork down. He dropped it on the table while his hand was on its way across the bread plate becomming the fist he smashed into her jaw.Milkman hadn't planned any of it, but he had to know that one day, after Macon hit her, he'd see his mother's hand cover her lips as she searched with her tongue for any broken teeth . . . and that on that day he would not be able to stand it . . . "You touch her again, one more time, and I'll kill you."Macon was so shocked at being assaulted he could not speak. He had come to believe, after years of creating respect and fear wherever he put his foot down, after years of being the tallest man in every gathering, that he was impregnable. Now he crept along the wall looking at a man who was as tall as he was -- and forty years younger.
Questions:1) Shortly after this incident Macon offers Milkman reasons for his violence. Do you think he is lying to Macon to justify his actions?2) Even if Macon is telling the truth (about why he feels such hatred and contempt for his wife), are his actions justifiable?

Domestic Violence in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 93: When Milkman got to Pilate's he walked in on a domestic crisis.Reba's new man friend had asked her for a small loan and she had told him that she didn't have any money at all . . . Hagar screamed to Pilate, "Mama! He's hitting her! I saw him! With his fist, Mama!"[description of Pilate getting a knife deleted] It didn't occur to Milkman to stop Pilate -- her mouth was not moving and her earring flashed fire -- but he did follow her, as did Hagar, around to the back fo the house, where, approaching the man from the back, she whipped her right arm around his beck and positioned the knife at the edge of his heart. She waited until the man felt the knife point before she jabbed it skilfully, about a quarter of an inch through his shirt into the skin. Still holding his neck, so he couldn't see but he coiuld feel the blood making his shirt sticky, she talked to him.
Questions:1) How does Pilate's reaction to the man beating her daughter differ from Milkman's reaction to his father hitting his mother?

Names in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 38:Even while [Milkman] was screaming he wondered why he was suddenly so defensive -- so posessive about his name. He had always hated that name, all of it, and until he and Guitar became friends, he had hated his nickname too. But in Guitar's mouth it sounded clever, grown up. Now he was behaving with this strange woman as though having the name was a matter of deep personal pride, as though she had tried to expel him from a very special group, in which he not only belonged, but had exclusive rights.


Questions:1) Why does Milkman feel this way suddenly? What does he feel threatened about?

Names in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 45"I asked you did you play any. That why they call you Guitar?""Not cause I do play. Because I wanted to. When I was real little. So they tell me . . . It was a contest, in a store down home in Florida. I saw it when my mother took me downtown with her. I was just a baby . . . I cried for it, they said. And always asked about it."
Comments:It's interesting to note that Guitar is named after something he was unable to attain. This sums up his character pretty well. In the end, he is unable to attain the two things he wants -- the gold and revenge.

Names in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 89[Milkman speaking] "Sweet Hagar. Wonder what her name is."[Guitar speaking] "You just said it.""I mean her last name. Her daddy's name.""Ask Reba." Guitar paid their bar bill and helped Milkman negotiate to the door. The wind had risen and cooled. Guitar flapped his elbows againt the cold."Ask anybody but Reba," said Milkman. "Reba don't know her own last name.""Ask Pilate.""Yeah, I'll ask Pilate. Pilate knows. It's in that dumb-ass box hanging from her ear. Her own name and everybody else's. Bet mine's in there too. I'm gonna ask her what my name is. Say, you know how my old man's daddy got his name?""Uh uh. How?""Cracker gave it to him.""Sho 'nough?""Yep. And he took it. Like a f-ing sheep. Somebody should have shot him.""What for? He was already Dead."

Names in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 229: Milkman smiled and let his shoulders slump a little. It was a good feeling to come into a strange town and find a stranger who knew your people. All his life he'd heard the tremor in the word: "I live here, but my people . . ." or: "She acts like she ain't got no people," or: "Do any of your people like there?" But he hadn't known what it meant: links. He remembered Freddie sitting in Sonny's Shop just before Christmas, saying, "None of my people would take me in."

Names in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 329: [Milkman] read the road signs with interest now, wondering what lay beneath the names . . . How many dead lives and fading memories were buried in and beneath the names of the places in this country. Under the recorded names were other names, just as "Macon Dead," recorded for all time in some dusty file, hid from view the real names of people, places, and things. Names that had meaning. No wonder Pilate put hers in her ear. When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you do. Like the street he lived on, recorded as Mains Avenue, but called Not Doctor Street.
Questions:1) Why does Pilate bury the box with her name in it at the end of the novel if what Milkman thinks here is true? Why doesn't she hang on to it?

Names in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 17: [Macon Dead] walked there now . . . thinking of names. Surely, he thought, he and his sister had some ancestor, some lithe young man with onyx skin and legs as straight as cane stalks, who had a name that was real. A name given to him at birth with love and seriousness. A name that was not a joke, nor a disguise, nor a brand name . . . His own parents, in some mood of pervesness or resignation, had agreed to abide by a naming done to them by somebody who couldn't have cared less.

Questions:1) Why doesn't Macon change his family name if he is so bothered by it? Isn't he perpetuating the "resignation" by accepting the name of Macon Dead?

Names in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 15 "A milkman. That's what you got here, Miss Rufie. A natural milkman if ever I seen one. Look out, womens. Here he come. Huh!"Freddie carried his discovery not only into the homes in Ruth's neighborhood, but to Southside, where he lived and where Macon Dead owned rent houses. So Ruth kept close to home and had no afternoon guests for the better part of two months, to keep from hearing that her son had been rechristened with a name he was never able to shake and that did nothing to improve either one's relationship with his father.



Questions:


1) How did Milkman get his name?


2) How many people know why Milkman is called Milkman?


3) Why doesn't Milkman ever think to ask someone why he is named Milkman?

Murder and Death in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 81[Freddie speaking] "A dead man ain't no man. A dead man is a corpse. That's all. A corpse."

Question: 1) How does Freddie's comment relate to Milkman's conclusion that "[your name] will die when you do"?

Murder and Death in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 100: When some particularly nasty murder was reported, the Negroes said it was Winnie Ruth. They said that because Winnie Ruth was white and so were the victims. It was their way of explaining what they believed was white madness -- crimes planned and executed in a truly lunatic manner against total strangers. Such murders could only be committed by a fellow lunatic of the race and Winnie Ruth Judd fit the description. They believed firmly that members of their own race killed one another for good reasons: violation of another's turf (a man is found with somebody else's wife); refusal to observe the laws of hospitality (a man reaches into a friend's pot of mustards and snatches out the meat); or verbal insults impugnating their virility, honesty, humanity, and mental health. More important, they believed the crimes were committed in the heat of passion: anger, jealousy, loss of face, and so on. Bizarre killings amused them, unless of course the victim was one of their own.




Questions:1) How is killing someone because they insult your honesty justifiable? If someone insulted your humanity and then you killed them, wouldn't their insult have been right on target?
2) Is Guitar's murder of Pilate (and his indirect murder of Milkman) justifiable, following the above code?

Murder and Death in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 140[Ruth Dead speaking] "Nobody lives forever, Pilate.""Don't?""Of course not.""Nobody?""Of course, nobody.""I don't see why not.""Death is as natural as life.""Ain't nothing natural about death. It's the most unnatural thing they is.""You think people should live forever?""Some people. Yeah.""Who's to decide? Which ones should live and which ones shouldn't?""The people themselves. Some folks want to live forever. Some don't. I believe they decide on it anyway. People die when they want to and if they want to. Don't nobody have to die if they don't want to."



Questions:


1) Did Pilate want to die at the end of the novel? Above she says that people decide when they want to die. Did Guitar give her much of a choice?





2) Does Milkman have a choice? Is the decision he made based on what he wanted or what he knew was inevitable?

Murder and Death in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 155[Milkman speaking] "You? You're going to kill people?"[Guitar speaking] "Not people. White people."..."Why don't you just hunt down the ones who did the killing? Why kill innocent people? Why not just those who did it?""It doesn't matter who did it. Each and every one of them could do it. So you just get any one of them. There are no innocent white people, because every one of them is a potential nigger-killer, if not an actual one. You think Hitler surprised them? You think just because they went to war they thought he was a freak? Hitler's the most natural white man in the world. He killed Jews and Gypsies because he didn't have us. Can you see those Klansmen shocked by him? No, you can't."



Comments:At first I couldn't believe Guitar was capable of killing his best friend Milkman and Pilate. Then I re-read the book and re-read this passage. I think Morrison was showing that his thought process naturally went from justifying the killing of the "other" to killing the "us." Morrison's point here is that once you think it's ok to kill people, before long you'll think it's ok to kill people B, C, D, and so on. There is no justification in murder. (posted by an unknown blogger)

Murder and Death in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 208[Pilate speaking] "A human life is precious. You shouldn't fly off and leave it . . . If you take a life, then you own it. You responsible for it. You can't get rid of nobody by killing them. They still there, and they yours now . . . Life is life. Precious. And the dead you kill is yours. They stay with you anyway, in your mind. So it's a better thing, a more better thing to have the bones right there with you wherever you go. That way, it frees up your mind."Fucks up your mind, thought Milkman, fucks it up for good. He pulled himself up from the table. He had to get some sleep before he went looking for Guitar.Staggering up the stairs, he remembered Pilate's back as she got out of the Buick -- not bent at all under the weight of the sack. And he remembered how Guitar glared at her as she walked away from the car.
Questions:


1) How does Guitar's opinion on murder differ from Pilate's?


2) Is Milkman right? Is Pilate a touch loopy because she's been carrying the weight of the guilt around with her?


3) Why does Guitar glare at Pilate?
Comments:I think Guitar is angry that Pilate is taking responsibility for the murder she committed. (Remember, she thinks the sack contains the bones of the man she murdered). Also, I don't know if Pilate is exactly feeling guilt. Her back is "not bent at all under the weight of the sack." Maybe it's the fact she is so *used* to the man's bones being with her that she has accepted what she did long ago and no longer feels guilt about it.

Murder and Death in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 331Perhaps that is what all human relationships boiled down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it?"Everybody wants a black man's life."Yeah. And black men were not excluded. With two exceptions, everybody [Milkman] was close to seemed to prefer him out of this life. And the two exceptions were both women, both black, both old. From the beginning, his mother and Pilate had fought for his life, and he had never so much as made either of them a cup of tea.Would you save my life or would you take it? Guitar was exceptional. To both questions he could answer yes.

Names in SONG OF SOLOMON

page 15: Macon Dead never knew how it came about -- how his only son acquired the nickname that stuck in spite of his own refusal to use it or acknowledge it. It was a matter that concerned him a good deal, for the giving of names in his family was always surrounded by what he believed to be monumental foolishness.