Song Of Solomon Rhetorical Analysis
Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is a novel that includes many issues revolving around race, gender, class, and history. However, an issue that really stands out is women’s expectations. Toni Morrison uses the characters Milkman and Hagar to communicate the message that society's expectations for women cause women to feel internal misogyny.
Hagar was Milkman’s lover but she often felt like she wasn’t good enough for him. She felt that Milkman was into women with nice hair, light skin, colored eyes, and other “appealing” features, but Hagar, being African-American, didn’t have those features. As a result from that, Hagar was left wondering why Milkman never liked her features. Why he never loved her for who she was. Always asking herself why. “Why don’t he like my …show more content…
hair?” (Morrison 315).
In her article, Why don’t he like my hair?, Bertram D. Ashe adds on to the message that Toni Morrison is trying to communicate. She writes, “don’t be a fool with your hair.... no man likes a bald-headed woman”, and the first part of that really stands out to me. The reason for that is how can one be a fool with their hair? Black women are expected to do something with their hair, such as: hair-straightening, perms, weaves, extensions, and things of that sort. My question is, why can’t they rock their natural hair? Women are expected to follow the white cultural ideal of femininity, and just to be good enough for the men they love, they go ahead and follow it. Hagar tried multiple times to be what Milkman wanted. She changed her appearance just to be loved. We know that misogyny is the dislike of women, and because men expect women to look a certain way, women feel hatred within themselves. They’re suffering trying to achieve that penny-colored silky hair. Not because the actual process is hurtful, but because the hate within themselves caused them to change themselves in order to be accepted.
The fact that they can’t be themselves and be accepted is emotionally hurtful. This is something that unfortunately has a strong effect on women. Just like I said it destroys them emotionally, it destroys them physically as well. In the book, Hagar dies because milkman never loved her and she knew that he never would, no matter what she did.
Overall, Toni Morrison and Bertram D. Ashe use their writing to develop the message that the fact that men expect women to look a certain way destroys women, physically and/or emotionally. That women go out of their way just to be good enough for someone else. They give up the love they feel for themselves just to be loved by the one whom they love.
Hagar was Milkman’s lover but she often felt like she wasn’t good enough for him. She felt that Milkman was into women with nice hair, light skin, colored eyes, and other “appealing” features, but Hagar, being African-American, didn’t have those features. As a result from that, Hagar was left wondering why Milkman never liked her features. Why he never loved her for who she was. Always asking herself why. “Why don’t he like my …show more content…
hair?” (Morrison 315).
In her article, Why don’t he like my hair?, Bertram D. Ashe adds on to the message that Toni Morrison is trying to communicate. She writes, “don’t be a fool with your hair.... no man likes a bald-headed woman”, and the first part of that really stands out to me. The reason for that is how can one be a fool with their hair? Black women are expected to do something with their hair, such as: hair-straightening, perms, weaves, extensions, and things of that sort. My question is, why can’t they rock their natural hair? Women are expected to follow the white cultural ideal of femininity, and just to be good enough for the men they love, they go ahead and follow it. Hagar tried multiple times to be what Milkman wanted. She changed her appearance just to be loved. We know that misogyny is the dislike of women, and because men expect women to look a certain way, women feel hatred within themselves. They’re suffering trying to achieve that penny-colored silky hair. Not because the actual process is hurtful, but because the hate within themselves caused them to change themselves in order to be accepted.
The fact that they can’t be themselves and be accepted is emotionally hurtful. This is something that unfortunately has a strong effect on women. Just like I said it destroys them emotionally, it destroys them physically as well. In the book, Hagar dies because milkman never loved her and she knew that he never would, no matter what she did.
Overall, Toni Morrison and Bertram D. Ashe use their writing to develop the message that the fact that men expect women to look a certain way destroys women, physically and/or emotionally. That women go out of their way just to be good enough for someone else. They give up the love they feel for themselves just to be loved by the one whom they love.