Morrison in Song of Soloman takes up with the problem of identity. Milkman Dead’s body is a tabula rasa that becomes littered with everyone else’s history, culture, and desire. In fact, through much of the story there’s a question of whether Milkman exists at all (is it I’m Milkman already Dead or Milkman Dead still alive). The first time Milkman feels real at all was when he knocked his father into the radiator. The Oedipal maneuver by Morrison is one of many that seems to me overtly Freudian that she is actually mocking him and distancing herself from that kind of psychological reading. The second time, or the first time something real had "filled his mouth with salt" (183), was when Guitar gave a "crisp concreteness" to the lost gold story told to him by his father (184). Of course, the first time an event had formed "a clean-line definite self" of Milkman, turned out to be a hoax. The gold that promised a life of freedom and comfort turned out to be the bones of a white man, which later turned out to be the remains of his grandfather. The gold that symbolized a "flight" from Milkman’s stalemate life turned out the be the bones of a man who had actually taken "flight". This knowledge in the end sets Milkman, from his perspective, free. The road to self knowledge for Milkman is, in the very least resemblance, the same as the one for Oedipa Maas.
There is so much in this novel, it makes me dizzy thinking about what to write. Let me say, since it looks like I’m the first to blog on the book, some generalities: this story takes place in a specific time, in specific places, within real historical realities. Milkman Dead shares his birthday with the author, which she gives on the first page. Most of the novel is set in what seems like Southside Chicago, even though Dead repeatedly says he’s from Michigan. And it deals with issues related to the "Great Migration," most importantly, race riots. Guitar takes on this overtly political role as the black radical. While she represents Guitar’s duty (an eye for an eye) in what I took for a positive light, Morrison by the end is distancing herself from this character. It’s unclear what Morrison thinks of Milkman by the end. Did he finally realize his true self, as a part of the Song of Soloman, as a true member of this great diasporic family, or did he, like his grandfather before him, up and leave his family and problems behind.
If cherry jam is the enemy, the unlived "other" life, then raspbery twigs represent home, the whole being, the chosen way. Ginger represents the unreal, the supernatural, the place of longing and desire. The other shore. The other world. Ginger, not grown in the United States, is not a natural smell. The brain plays tricks on the senses and ginger is not actually smelled but felt. If you’ve ever drove through south Chicago, like I have many times, the range of smells is confounding. You know that there’s the Wrigley gum plant, the soap plants, the automobile plants of Gary, In., but these smells, all mingled together, never match up in the mind to the exact source.