Songs Of Solomon
Essay Preview: Songs Of Solomon
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ESSAY #2 Otten: The Crime of Innocence in the Fiction of Toni Morrison
Continuities of Community
Valerie Smiths critical essay Song of Solomon: Continuities of Community focuses on Milkmans successful search for personal independence against communal and cultural barriers. Moreover it looks at how Morrisons two preceding novels may have “established a framework” (Page 274) for Milkman and his quest for identity.
The first section of the essay deals with the novels, The Bluest Eye and Sula, which were written before Songs of Solomon. The Blue Eyes centers its story on a girl named Pecola Breedlove. Pecola longs to have blue eyes and goes insane once she realizes that this physical characteristic is unattainable. Smith insists that what drove Pecola to insanity were not merely the unattainable blue eyes she pursued, but the fact that she “served as the communal scapegoat.” (
Like the protagonist of The Blue Eyes, Sula, in the novel titled after her, Sula, attempts a life and identity that is deemed beyond her gender and cultural means. Sulas attempt a distinguishing herself from her community makes her an easy target for them to blame their burdens upon. Also like the novel The Blue Eyes, “Morrison denies the feasibility of such a choice” (
Songs of Solomon is the only book where the main character, Milkman, is allowed to fully pursue his individuality and emerge with a true self identity.
The novel is based around the primary character