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Song of Solomon

 

            The novel, Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, is based on the racism against African Americans in United Stats. The novel is a story about a man named Macon Dead III, also known as Milkman because his mother nurses him until he is six years old. Milkman feels like everyone wants a piece of him and he is bored of his own life. In the story, Milkman befriends a killer named Guitar; he visits his estranged aunt Pilate; he falls in love with Pilate's granddaughter Hagar; he lives in fear of his father Macon Dead. Finally he decides to leave his home for awhile in search of a piece of gold that might grant him his freedom and live a new life. In his quest, he will not find any gold, but he will find answer to the mystery of his ancestors. .
             Milkman is one of the new generation of African Americans. He is born in Mercy hospital, an all-white hospital which the people of the neighborhood have nicked named no Mercy hospital for its policy of admitting no African-American patients. Milkman's relation to his material sustenance is so far removed that he never even thinks of money as something for which he needs to strive. He is two generations removed from slavery and has no concept of the continuation of discrimination against his people because he's been protected from racism by his class position. In contrast, his friend Guitar faces discriminations and is greatly influenced by them. He has become political in the anti-racism movement and joins a small group called the Seven Days. The group consists of seven killers and they each have one day of the week. When an African American is killed by white people, they retaliate by killing a white American on the same day of the week. The men tell their victims "Your day has come" just before they kill them.
             Milkman begins his journey with the presumption that he is searching for stolen gold in hopes that this gold will grant him freedom from his boring life.


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