As Allen states, “In Song of Solomon which, briefly put, defines the growth into manhood of a young Black man in a Midwestern town, the focusing consciousness is male,” (30). Allen is supporting the idea of male identities being the strong focus of Song of Solomon. At the center of that strong black male identity search is Milkman Dead and his best friend Guitar.

Milkman is the legacy of a family of men who have done many things to find themselves and shape their life. His great-grandfather flew for his freedom, his grandfather died for his beliefs, and

his father traded goodness for power and wealth while all along trying to attain one thing…acknowledgment from the white race as equals. His ancestors flew, died, and lived a life of greed all to try to develop some small part of the black male identity. Milkman approaches his journey is a different way altogether. Perhaps, because he is ignorant, immature and naïve to all of the knowledge to be gained, but he begins his search for his father and soon becomes tangled in his own male identity through the truths of his family history.

Another main character that experiences a significant search for identity is Milkman‘s friend Guitar. Guitar loses himself in the false illusions of the black male identity, and instead of heading off on a search for his own identity he looks to violence and revenge and looks no farther. That is why he joins the Seven Days gang. Guitar believes that everyone, especially the white male, wants the black male identity. He thinks that is why they refuse to accept blacks as equals because they know that blacks have more of an identity than they do. “Everybody wants the life of a black man. White men want us dead or quiet-which is the same thing as dead. White women, same thing. And black women they want you whole self. You can’t even die unless it’s about them. What good is a man’s life is he can’t even choose what to die for?” (222-223). Price Reynolds best describes in his New York Ties Book Review, Guitar’s struggle with fake illusions. “The purpose seems to be communication of painfully discovered and powerfully held convictions about the possibility of transcendence within human life,” (11).

At the end of Milkman’s journey the development of his potent male identity has been shaped significantly by the people he has met and the things he has experienced. Finally for the first time in his life Milkman seems to have some personal acknowledgment of his guilt and the devastating consequences of his actions. “No reconciliation took place…Just as the conseq

Some topics in this essay:
Guitar Milkman, Lena Hagar, Song Solomon, Review Guitar’s, Seven Days, Song Solomon”, Toni Morrison, Guitar Guitar, Black Midwestern, black male, male identity, black male identity, Genevieve Fabre’s, song solomon, milkman’s journey, male identities, father father, search identity, 30 allen, male characters, search own,