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Song of Solomon follows Macon “Milkman” Dead III – an immature, unempathetic Black man who has been raised to believe that he is superior to others in his community – as his life circumstances lead him to his ancestral home in Virginia, where learning about the history of his enslaved great-grandfather sets him on a path toward love and redemption. The novel extrapolates on the Black American myth that depicts magical enslaved people escaping the horrors of slavery by flying home to Africa, weaving the traditional slave folktale with a narrative set during the American Civil Rights Movement, which spanned mainly from the 1950s to the late 1960s. Through Milkman’s journey, Morrison explores the experience of Black men, the complicated relationships between Black men and Black women, and the many ways – both harmful and helpful – that Black people attempt to liberate themselves from racial oppression.
The novel begins on the day before Milkman’s birth, which also happens to be the day that one of Milkman’s father’s tenants decides to commit suicide – or, in his own words, to fly – by jumping off a building. This event introduces flight as the major theme and concept around which the novel circulates. At the age of four, Milkman becomes uninterested in his own life when he learns that humans are unable to fly, and this general apathy follows him throughout his teenage and adult years. Milkman is a level-headed young man, but he’s learned from his father to distance himself from others in his community and think only of himself. He becomes increasingly distanced from his best friend Guitar, who is unimpressed by Milkman’s indifference toward his Black peers. He also fails to maintain a healthy relationship with his girlfriend Hagar and her mother Pilate, who is also Milkman’s aunt. Considering that Pilate and her daughters represent a supportive and loving Black family, Milkman’s falling out with the women symbolizes how he is moving further and further from his roots.
The novel’s main inciting incident happens when Guitar, who needs money to fulfill a murderous mission for the secret Black society Seven Days, convinces Milkman to help him rob Pilate. The men believe that Pilate has gold that she acquired after her father’s death, but they find little besides a skeleton in her house. Believing that the gold might be hidden in Pennsylvania, somewhere on the property that Pilate’s father died protecting, Milkman starts on a journey south. While he doesn’t find money, he does find Circe, a midwife who was present at his father and Pilate’s birth. The novel’s rising action sees Milkman traveling further south to Virginia, the home of his great-grandfather, to learn more about his family’s history – all the while, unbeknownst to Milkman, Guitar has set out to find and kill him, believing that Milkman has cheated him out of gold.
In Virginia, the novel reaches its climax when Milkman learns that his great-grandfather was the legendary Solomon, who is said to have flown away from slavery back to Africa, leaving behind his wife and many children – one of whom was Jake, Pilate’s father and Milkman’s grandfather. Solomon’s escape is both a beautiful triumph over slavery and a tragic act that leaves his wife abandoned, unable to mentally bear the burden of raising her children alone while still enslaved. Learning about his family’s bittersweet past opens Milkman up to the love, joy, and connection that had previously been missing from his life. Realizing that he is descended from a man who could “fly” fulfills a need he’s had his entire life. Because his great-grandfather flew away from oppression to freedom, now Milkman has been liberated to do the same. The climax continues when Milkman returns to Michigan to share his enlightenment with Pilate and finds Hagar dead. He realizes that flight has consequences, and that there are ways to fly without abandoning those you care for.
In the novel’s falling action, Pilate and Milkman set out once again for the South to bury Jake’s skeleton and lay their family member to rest. Milkman is now a changed man, fully connected to his roots and to his ability to love. However, the novel’s conclusion is unusual in that there is another rise in action in the final scene – Guitar, having followed Milkman once again to the South, shoots at him, accidentally hitting Pilate and killing her. When Pilate dies, Milkman believes her soul flies away in the form of a bird, and he realizes that Pilate exemplifies the ability to “fly” or live a liberated life without leaving your loved ones behind. Having reached a level of fulfillment and peace that goes beyond death, Milkman jumps at Guitar in an act of surrender and liberation, potentially sending them both falling over Solomon’s Leap and ending the novel with another symbolic image of flight.
