I think that what struck me most while reading Song of Solomon was how many different kinds of slavery there are in the novel. There is, of course, the slavery from which Milkman’s ancestors are freed. But his father, Macon, who was not a slave himself, enslaves other black people. Guitar’s grandmother observes this in the beginning of the book, when Macon demands money from her, even in her impoverished state: "A nigger in business is a terrible thing to see. A terrible, terrible thing to see" (22). In a way, Milkman enslaves his sisters and his mother, or "pees" on them, as Lena points out. "Our girlhood was spent like a found nickel on you. When you slept, we were quiet; when you were hungry, we cooked; when you wanted to play, we entertained you; and when you got grown enough to know the difference between a women and a two-toned Ford, everything in this house stopped for you" (215).
It seems that the enslaver is always enslaved. Macon becomes a slave to his own greed, as he feels the need to own. He tells Milkman: "Let me tell you right now the one important thing you’ll ever need to know: Own things. And let the things you own own other things. Then you’ll own yourself and other people too" (55). Milkman becomes a slave to greed as well, or hunger, as he calls it, for money (at least in the beginning). When he goes looking for the gold in Shalimar, he thinks: "The fact was he wanted the gold because it was gold and he wanted to own it. Free" (257).
I also saw, in the novel, how many prisons can exist for people. There is the obvious one, the Butlers’ house, where the killers of Jake/Macon Dead Sr. lived and where Macon and Pilate hid after their father’s death (and which just might look like the witch’s house – another prison – in Hansel and Gretel): "They couldn’t bear the stillness, the walls, the boredom of having nothing to do but wait for the day’s excitement of eating and going to the toilet. Anything was better than walking all day on carpeting, than eating the soft bland food that white people ate…" (166). There is also Milkman’s parents’ house on Not Doctor Street, from which Milkman could not seem to pry himself. But the characters imprison themselves. They allude to freedom, but they shackle themselves – Milkman with sex and liquor, Guitar with hate (although he calls it love), and Hagar with her obsession.
There is also an obvious connection between freedom and flying. All through his travels, Milkman’s old skin is peeling away, gradually freeing him from his former life – he loses his possessions, his suit is torn away, his shoes come apart, and his fine watch is splintered. It is in Shalimar, where Milkman finally has nothing, that he gains freedom: "So the thoughts came, unobstructed by other people, by things, even by the sight of himself. There was nothing here to help him – not his money, his car, his father’s reputation, his suit, or his shoes. In fact they hampered him" (277). When he is finally free, he truly gains the ability to fly, which is what he longed for, even as a little boy looking out the window: "For now he knew what Shalimar knew: If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it" (337). I struggled a little bit with the freedom/flying/Byrd connection – perhaps it is that true freedom is always available, but that one must take it to have it? Like taking flight?
I looked up the Song of Solomon verses in the King James bible, but I made little headway in relating them to this novel (if there is even a connection). I wonder if anyone else saw anything in them?