Abandonment And Symbolism In Song Of Solomon, By Toni Morrison
Symbols can prove highly effective when it comes to literature. Toni Morrison is well known for her highly symbolic works and how she uses certain symbols and themes to convey meaningful messages that have a lot of depth. Once she picks a theme or a symbol she effortlessly creates countless connections throughout her novel- or novels. There are variety of literary devices and themes in the works of author Toni Morrison but the ones we are going to focus on are those of symbolism and abandonment and what it takes to survive the effects or trauma of that abandonment. Morrison has written a variety of books such as Tar Baby, Beloved, Paradise, Sula, Jazz, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon, which all are heavy on the use of symbolism and
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deal with abandonment and how it affects the characters journey throughout their story. Morrison herself has stated her aim in writing which is “to show how to survive whole in a whole in a world where we are all of us, in some measure, victims of something.”(Morrison)
To achieve this goal Morrison at times dramatizes the destructive elements of dependency and exaggerates to find the limits.
Insightful and consistently critical of her own work, Morrison has used the theme of love and the effects of its rarity in today’s society as her basis in many works while also examining how it affects the live of characters, especially those in in smaller self-contained communities.
As a young girl Morrison was taught to appreciate the vastness of her African-American heritage and the power and joy brought by great literature. It wasn’t until she was an adult traveling through South Africa with a repertory company from Howard University that Morrison saw firsthand the life of the black people there. After graduating Morrison was offered a job at Texas Southern University where she was surprised at how they celebrated African-American heritage. It was after this that she was introduced to the idea of black culture not as just personal family reminiscences but as a discipline that was to be respected and researched ad nauseam, compared to her experience at Howard where African-American culture was either neglected or marginalized. This discovery of the minimization of the black culture in the school that she attended could be considered the abandoning of her roots and her
culture.
The idea of abandoning black culture is the main theme in her novel, Tar Baby. Tar Baby which like the word Nigger was used by white people as term of degradation. In an interview with Karin L. Badt from 1995 Morrison gave her opinion on the word term. She says “Tar Baby is also a name, like "nigger," that white people call black children, black girls, as I recall. At one time, a tar pit was a holy place, at least an important place, because tar was used to build
deal with abandonment and how it affects the characters journey throughout their story. Morrison herself has stated her aim in writing which is “to show how to survive whole in a whole in a world where we are all of us, in some measure, victims of something.”(Morrison)
To achieve this goal Morrison at times dramatizes the destructive elements of dependency and exaggerates to find the limits.
Insightful and consistently critical of her own work, Morrison has used the theme of love and the effects of its rarity in today’s society as her basis in many works while also examining how it affects the live of characters, especially those in in smaller self-contained communities.
As a young girl Morrison was taught to appreciate the vastness of her African-American heritage and the power and joy brought by great literature. It wasn’t until she was an adult traveling through South Africa with a repertory company from Howard University that Morrison saw firsthand the life of the black people there. After graduating Morrison was offered a job at Texas Southern University where she was surprised at how they celebrated African-American heritage. It was after this that she was introduced to the idea of black culture not as just personal family reminiscences but as a discipline that was to be respected and researched ad nauseam, compared to her experience at Howard where African-American culture was either neglected or marginalized. This discovery of the minimization of the black culture in the school that she attended could be considered the abandoning of her roots and her
culture.
The idea of abandoning black culture is the main theme in her novel, Tar Baby. Tar Baby which like the word Nigger was used by white people as term of degradation. In an interview with Karin L. Badt from 1995 Morrison gave her opinion on the word term. She says “Tar Baby is also a name, like "nigger," that white people call black children, black girls, as I recall. At one time, a tar pit was a holy place, at least an important place, because tar was used to build