Number 176002

“Grab a copy of Song of Solomon from the EVL and begin reading the first fifty pages tonight.”

Those where the final instructions I heard before the class concluded. I had a few minutes before my next class and decided to stop by and grab copy from the library. The title resembled that of a National Geographic documentary: The Song Of Salmon. Already my expectations where not the best, but as I took a first glance at the cover, depression overtook me. White letters over a plain blue background, and not just blue, it was bathroom blue.

I began reading with what was definitely not the best of first impressions. However, things began to change. Mr. Smith was standing on the roof and determined to fly. It was not a threat and he wasn’t crazy. Mr. Smith was not the typical suicide, in fact, “jumping from the roof of Mercy was the most interesting thing he had done” (8-9). Robert Smith had an ambition: freedom. He had lived a monotonous existence until that day when he chose to rebel against his confinement. The fact that the novel begins with this anecdote foreshadows a fight for freedom through the novel. Toni Morrison describes every character with their limitations. Be it Ruth enslaved to her marriage or Macon Dead tied to every penny, Morrison incorporates a limiting characteristic in every one of her characters. Only Mr. Smith did she set free from these limitations.

Likewise, Morrison’s naming of the characters is also peculiar. We encounter hidden meaning within names and names that mean nothing at all. Macon Dead received his names from “somebody who couldn’t have cared less” (18). Names are given to distinguish individuals from the masses, to give them a sense of identity. However, characters in the novel lack this sense of identity. Names such as Macon Dead, which are probably not real in the first place, begin to blur the importance of the individual. In the same manner, a nickname of the sort of Milkman casts a shadow over any real qualities the individual might have. His most important asset, and the characteristic by which he will be remembered, is an empty nickname.

As a result, I went back to my initial impression on the novel. What if, resembling its content, the cover purposely lacks an identity? It is a great risk, but maybe Toni Morrison tried to mimic the naming of her characters in the naming and presentation of her book. At first glance, the novel fails to outshine any other title in a library, but those who give it a chance find a novel far more intricate than those contained in the more extravagant covers.