Blog #13: Song of Solomon Overview, Exploration, and Reflection on Leading Discussion.
Blog # 13: Song of Solomon Overview, Exploration, and Reflection on Leading Discussion.
First of all, I am really enjoying reading the book. It is a great story, told with unbelievable writing, and interesting details about everything, all of which make it very hard to put down.
Ex. This morning, when I was reading up to page 298, I didn’t want to go any farther, for fear of contributing something to the discussion that we hadn’t all read yet. But I started reading onto page 299, accidentally and stopped immediately after noticing the page number. But then I was enjoying reading the book so much, and I didn’t want to stop, so I turned back to page 292 and read up to page 298 again.
I feel that this book almost inspires me to write a story, or that if I did want to write a story, I should read this story about 10 times in a row to absorb and take in all of the wonderful writing techniques Toni Morrison uses to communicate this story to the reader.
I just want to flip through the book and find passages that I made notes about in the book, indicating that I thought they were interesting or significant, and explore them more…(Also, I had a Track Meet this past Thursday, and I missed the discussion about pages 219-258, so I would like to explore those pages on my own.
Page 231: “Maybe it was the whiskey, which always made other people gracious when he drank it, but Milkman felt a glow listening to a story come from this man that he’d heard many times before but only half listened to. Or maybe it was being there in the place where it happened that made it seem so real. Hearing Pilate talk about caves and woods and earrings on Darling Street, or his father talk about cooking wild turkey over the automobile noise of Not Doctor Street, seemed exotic, something from another world and age, and maybe not even true. Here in the parsonage, sitting in a cane-bottomed chair near an upright piano and drinking homemade whiskey poured from a mayonnaise jar, it was real. Without knowing it, he had walked right by the place where Pilate’s earring had been fashioned, the earring that had fascinated him when he was little, the fixing of which informed the colored people here that the children of the murdered man were alive. And this was the living room of the son of he man who made the earring”
Milkman, starts believing the stories he had heard his whole life, that always seemed so distant and unreal, but being in the place where they happened and learning more about his past from other people helps him believe in them and have faith in what he has been told. He makes a lot of discoveries during this trip, not only about his past and the people around him, but about himself. I think he is transformed to a certain extent by the experience. ex. Later on…talks about how he really cares about his past and his relatives
Page 233: “ ‘I sort of wanted to see where it was since I’m out this way. Daddy talked so much about it.’”
Milkman sounds more mature and sincere, he sounds like he is really interested in learning about his past, and finding Circe. I think he is maturing and changing.
Page 235: from “you see?” To “pass it on!”
This passage sounded like a sermon to me, like a religious sermon. It is talking about the farm of Macon Dead (Milkman’s grandfather). And how it gave inspiration and motivation to all of the people in the town, and showed them the fruits of hard work and labor. Then after the passage is over, it talks about how then the Butlers shot Macon, and Milkman understands how that must have affected all of the people in the town. How it must have felt for them to see that this man who worked so hard to be successful, and achieved success in their eyes, and was a role model to all of them, got blown into a million pieces. Milkman describes it as the beginning of their deaths. This passage reminds me of the DVD we watched in class about with Henry Lewis Gates Jr., and the portion of the movie with the man who was in jail, and how the man said that he thought that there was so much crime, drugs, violence, and corruption where he lived because there were no proper role models for the children, no one for them to look up to. Many boys didn’t even have fathers to look up to. When they walked out their door, they didn’t see firemen, or police officers, or teachers, or educated, successful people that they could look up to. Instead, they saw drug addicts and dealers, fights and violence, guns and weapons, and that is all they had ever known. That is a really sad thing to think about.
Page 239: The Butler house seems corrupt and rotten to Milkman. Interestingly, it is the house of the people who murdered his grandfather, and, no doubt, would have murdered his father and aunt too, if they had found out that they were hiding in that very house.
Page 243: “Nervous love” : unhealthy relationship between Milkman’s grandparents
Page 250: “salt taste”. He has tasted that before, I think before he robbed Pilate of the green bag. Maybe it signifies that he is about to find gold, or at least that he thinks he is.
Page 264: children playing, talking about Solomon and flying, clearly very significant.
Page 265: image of the rooster: “A black rooster strutted by, its blood-red comb draped forward like a wicked brow. I wrote: “SCARY!!!” And “death?”
Page 266: Racial differences: “They looked at his skin and saw that it was as black as theirs, but they knew he had the heart of the white men who came to pick them up in the trucks when they needed anonymous, faceless laborers”
Faceless laborers: like slavery, loss of identity
White animals, especially white hens. After his encounter with Saul, Milkman kicks at a white hen, possibly metaphorical.
Page 277: Apparently he thought he deserved to be loved-from a distance, though-and given what he wanted. And in return he would be…what? Pleasant? Generous? Maybe all he was really saying was: I am not responsible for your pain; share your happiness with me but not your unhappiness.
Very revealing about Milkman’s character, he is discovering things about himself, and he is discovering how he feels about love.
Interesting passage: When Milkman’s new friends, Omar, etc. and he are cutting up the bobcat and Milkman keeps remembering things that Guitar said to him. I loved this passage. I think it is probably one of the most interesting passages of writing I have ever read in my whole life. It is SO COOL!!!
Reflection on Song of Solomon discussion:
I think our (me and Taylor’s) Song of Solomon discussion went really well. It was interesting to lead the class in a discussion and listen to their ideas from a different perspective, as a teacher rather than as a peer, I mean, figuratively speaking, not literally.
I was really glad that, for the most part, we were able to discuss all of the things we had wanted to and give the class an in depth understanding (I hope) of the relationships that we learned about during our passage, which were: Hagar and Milkman, Ruth and Milkman, Ruth and Pilate, Guitar and Milkman, and general relationships in the community (based on the passage in which the people in the community are observing Hagar’s behavior towards Milkman.
Relevancy of themes in modern times?
Yes. Love, unhealthy love relationships. Exploring relationships between different characters and people. Race: certainly the discussion between Guitar and Milkman, an eye for an eye? Or, does that really justify killing another person? (Keeping in mind all of the wars that are going on at this point in time) Overgeneralizations about race, whites and blacks. What Guitar doesn’t realize is that he hasn’t witnessed or talked to whites and blacks from all across the country or all around the world.
It was really interesting to read the passage keeping in mind that I was going to have to lead a discussion on it. It was enjoyable finding the parts of the reading that I thought my class would enjoy talking about, or would feel strongly about.
I enjoyed preparing for the discussion, especially because both Taylor and I got very involved in the discussions that we had about our passage, and their implications, or metaphorical meanings, etc.
I really enjoyed talking about our passage, because it was revealing about so many characters and relationships between characters, and it was very interesting for me to explore these relationships on more than a reading level, but on a discussion-leading level. I was really interested in all of the relationships and characters that we explored in our discussion, more than one over the other. I especially enjoyed exploring the following…
Hagar relies on Milkman as her anchor/ Ruth relies on the water stain
Milkman as Ruth’s “single triumph over Macon, and what does he represent to her now, as a full grown man? How she used Milkman to fix another relationship in her life, and what does that say about him.
The fact that Ruth and Pilate rely on each other, and almost complete each other.
And MORE.THE END (of the longest blog ever written)
