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Solomon is the titular character of Song of Solomon . He is Milkman’s great-grandfather, but he’s also a mythic figure within the town of Shalimar, Virginia, due to his wondrous flight. Solomon is said to have escaped slavery by flying home to Africa, leaving behind his wife and many children. Solomon is modeled after figures in Black American folklore, which includes many stories of enslaved people sprouting wings or discovering latent flying abilities and escaping their cruel enslavers. However, considering the mythical nature of these stories, the “flight” is often considered a euphemism for death. Only in death, or in reaching Heaven after a lifetime of suffering, were enslaved people finally and permanently free. While Solomon’s flight in the novel is generally talked about in a literal sense, flight and freedom are concepts that Morrison does ultimately tie to death—although Morrison also leaves room for the possibility of rebirth and healing.
Solomon’s character mainly operates on the symbolic level, juxtaposing his heroic reputation in Shalimar with the reality of his failure to protect his wife and children. On the one hand, we can deeply empathize with Solomon’s flight, as it invokes the great relief and joy of escaping the unimaginable brutality of slavery. On the other hand, his flight is not just an act of liberation – it is also an act of selfishness, as, in saving himself, he leaves behind his wife and young children, dooming them to continue to suffer the horrors of slavery without his support. It is in this intersection between liberation and selfishness that Morrison finds the thematic meat of Song of Solomon, which explores how Black men’s justifiable need to escape oppression often comes at the expense of Black women, who are pushed deeper into oppression by this abandonment and are expected to shoulder the responsibilities left behind by their male counterparts.
