Enduring Themes

In reading Song of Salomon, I began to encounter Biblical allusions every few lines. Before I could recollect what I knew about a biblical figure, another appeared. I began to wonder why Morrison made so much reference to this sacred book. For centuries, the ancestors of African Americans suffered the whip of slavery under humiliating conditions. With few possessions, and access to little or no entertainment, religion became a central element in the lives of slaves. They perceived the Bible as a source of hope and purpose for years. Eventually, when the abolitionist movement came, African Americans continued to gather around religious ideals. The Bible contains themes that are as valid in modern society as they where for the slaves during the darkest period of American history. In including biblical allusion in her novel, Morrison demonstrates how these themes are present regardless of time or geographic location.

However, names like Pilate, First Corinthians, Magdalene, Solomon and other biblical names pursue definite purposes. As a result, characters in the novel are defined by the history and traits of their equivalents in the Bible. In it, Hagar was a handmaiden who bears Abraham a son and is punished as a result. Her story reflects a patriarchal society and the idea of women as an object of pleasure. Likewise, Milkman’s Hagar symbolized his sexual initiation and his positioning as a man. She had brought change for “Sleeping with Hagar had made him generous” (69). Marrison points to sexual activity as the factor that triggered change in including “sleeping with her.” It isn’t what she is, but rather what she provides, that makes her important to Milkman. This happens short after Macon Dead hits Ruth. This is another display of masculine superiority, which reveals that the position of women in society isn’t that much different from what it was during Abraham’s time. In effect, Morrison confessed “The challenge of Song of Salmon was to manage what was for me a radical shift in imagination from a female focus to a male one” (Foreword).