In Song of Soloman, love plays a big role in nearly every character’s life. Often when we think of love, we envision a good, romantic situation, but this type of love is scarce in this novel. Some of the main love connections that are found in Song of Soloman include both Ruth and Hagar’s love for Milkman and these are the most destructive of the lot. In my opinion, love drives the plot and creates the most conflict between characters.
Let us start with Hagar and Milkman. This relationship starts when Milkman is young and he is struck by her beauty “She [Hagar] was to him [Milkman], as pretty a girl as he’d ever seen… He seemed to be floating.(45)”. We learn that for the next couple of years, Milkman is obsessed with his cousin (yes I know its weird). To be clear it is often not the love itself that causes destruction, but rather when it hurts the mindset of the lover. When one of the characters in this novel is obsessed with something, especially another person, it often spells an incoming disaster.
Back to the example from the book, the relationship between Milkman and Hagar grows beyond a one sided love from milkman. Over time the relationship switches and suddenly Hagar is the one falling over Milkman, and meanwhile he has lost interest. Hagar’s love reaches a new level and this is seen after Milkman tries to break things off with her. Then the love story turns into every crazy killer movie, and Hagar goes around trying to kill Milkman to make him pay for breaking her heart. This is one example of how love causes Hagar to act irrationally, and her obsession for Milkman lead to her demise.
The other big relationship in the story is between Milkman and his mother, Ruth. Just like the previous relationship, this one has its highs and lows. Ruth’s motherly love for Milkman is initially seen as good, and when Macon tries to keep Milkman from Ruth we find it awful. This was my initial reaction, but it changed quickly after learning that Ruth was using Milkman to get back at her husband. This put a new twist on the initial story about motherly love, and it is turned into a much darker version. This motherly love causes many conflicts throughout the Dead household, and it is just another example of destructive love.
Overall, there are a lot of different sections of Song of Solomon that are effected by some kind of love, but it often leads to destruction and problems that drive the plot.
Another part of the novel where love causes destruction and problems is when Guitar is telling Milkman about his reasons for being a member of the Seven Days. If I recall correctly, he said something along the lines of not being driven by hate to kill, but by love of his people. Obviously killing is a problem and becomes a huge problem for Milkman when Guitar tries to kill him (and also kills Pilate). Although this theme of love and conflict manifests a bit differently with Guitar than in Hagar and Ruth's cases, it further supports the theory of love driving the plot but also creating conflict.
ReplyDeleteExpanding on Emma's point, love certainly plays a role in the relationship between Guitar and Milkman themselves, albeit differently in the end compared to the beginning. Milkman and Guitar have a very peculiar relationship. Even though Guitar is a whole 5 years older than him, the pair still develops this sort of "brotherly love" relationship that Milkman enjoys. It seems like with all of Milkman's atypical family members, his genuine relationship with Guitar is very significant. We can see how complicated the relationship is when Guitar tries to kill Milkman, but still claims that he likes him and is friends with him. In the final scene of the novel, Guitar says something along the lines of "my man, my main man," exhibiting this point.
ReplyDeleteWe see a similar kind of destructive love in _Wide Sargasso Sea_, and common to both is the idea of love as something that *happens to you*, that rids you of your reason or self-control and makes you act the fool, or go crazy, or become obsessed. There are so many examples of this kind of love throughout the novel, but Ruth is maybe the most compelling and sympathetic: she has love, but no way of channeling it or expressing it, and her precious, almost miraculous son has no interest in returning it.
ReplyDeleteBut Pilate, by the end of the book, serves as a powerful counterexample--a healthy concept of love as a force for good in the world. She even forgives Milkman (apparently) for his treatment of Hagar. And in a sense, within this novel's way of treating love, it isn't completely his fault: she simply falls for him, "affection" becomes "affliction," as Morrison memorably puts it. It's as if there's really nothing Milkman can do about it.
(STILL, though, he could have handled that breakup a LOT differently. Don't any of you try a move like that!)