LITR 5731: Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, Fall 2004
Sample Student Midterm

Jennie Branch 

Flight: Freedom or Escape

The use of flight thematically is a salient undercurrent in African American literature and surfaces as early as the slave narratives to convey a monolithic desire for escape or freedom. Such symbolism is folklore that echoed from America as the Atlantic slave trade reached its zenith.  The accounts associated with the Flying African radiate from nearly every shore that slavery touched, and it is through these locations, that we as an audience hear different renderings of the folklore.  The belief behind the theme tends to be location-centric.  While there is some belief through more African-Caribbean cultures that the Flying African is a true recount of historical magical realism, there is a strong Pan-African American belief that the allegories behind the Flying Africans are tales synonymous with the ideals of freedom, and not a recount of magical events.  It is because of the diasporic nature of the African culture that the canonical tale of the Flying Africans carries with it so many different connotations. Though flight is often thought of interchangeably with freedom, there also seems to ring quietly the notion that this freedom is unattainable. 

When the methods of freedom are sought and accomplished (often the method is a search for knowledge), somebody is left scarred, insinuating that there is no true freedom for those who seek to fly: there is only escape.  Douglass, Morrison and Sapphire all use this idea of knowledge as flight in order to attain freedom, and consequently, not all who seek knowledge are inevitably freed.  There is this ever-present whisper in all three novels that continually suggests that most of the characters are not free, but have merely escaped from one life into another.

            In Douglass, flight is used as a symbol of escape as he juxtaposes his life, “fast in [his] chains…before a bloody whip”, and freedom as “swift-winged angels, O that [he] were free! O that [he] could fly!”  (Douglas, 293-294).  It is through this desire to escape that Douglass is determined to become literate, but through his literacy, does not find freedom from the pain inflicted by the dominate culture.  The escape attained through Douglass’ knowledge is merely that: an escape.  No true freedom exists for Douglass in America.  The flight accomplished through his literacy did not lead Douglass to the type of freedom he so desired.  He is freed from his illiteracy, but only manages to escape from a fraction of the burdens imposed upon his race.

            This same theme is concurrent with Push, as Sapphire conveys the story of a girl entrapped within her family, within herself and the struggles she must endure in order to escape.  Precious, like Douglass, seeks literacy as a means of escape, as her means of flight from her deteriorating life.  She speaks of the difficulty of freedom when Ms. Rain has told her that one “can nt escap the pass.  The way free is hard” (Sapphire 101).  Though Precious Jones is essentially pushing herself through her own education for the betterment of herself in hopes of eventual freedom from her own life, the likelihood of her reaching this freedom is not promising.  The psychologist who is working with Precious notes in her file that she may be suited for a work-placement program, but that she will most likely lack the computer skills necessary for other types of work.  As her literacy progresses, she feels more unity within herself, she “[sees] the wings beating beating…[she] sees flying.  Feel flying.  Am flying…Precious is bird” (129).  She feels the iron bonds of her own struggles lift, but is still under the weight of her own inescapable situation:  she is 16.  She has two children by her father.  She has HIV.  The literacy that she hoped would free her, has in a way freed her from one type of life, but like Douglass, has only helped her escape narrowly from the stigma that has been attached to her.  As noted by Elizabeth Martin, “Precious lacks the strength in the beginning to sprout wings.” Literacy may be able to free Precious Jones from extrinsic difficulties, but intrinsically, her life will not be changed.  Precious will probably never be free from poverty.  She will never be free of her children.  She will never be free of the memory of her father, and she will certainly never be free from HIV.

            While flight is a strong but fleeting theme in Push, it is a highly centralized theme in Morrison’s Song of Solomon.  Morrison’s use of flight depicts not only the freed, but the ones left behind.  She begins the novel with Robert Smith, who promises to “take off from Mercy and fly away on [his] own wings” (Morrison 9).  Smith is man seeking freedom from his life, but inevitably ends up dead, the ultimate escape. 

When Milkman discovers that people cannot fly, he looses interest in life.  It can be assumed that the plunge of Robert Smith is the catalyst for Milkman’s apathy which endures through most of his life.  While Smith has essentially escaped the life he no longer desired, he has left others alone and disparaged.  In his later years, Milkman seeks to be freed from his life, and in doing so seeks knowledge of himself and his family.  It is this search for knowledge that leads him away from Michigan, away from Not Doctor Street.  While he is finding his wings, he has left Hagar to die, and in the end, no matter what he has ‘freed’ himself from, he will always have to bear the burden of Hagar’s death.  When Milkman finally gains the knowledge about his family to “free” himself, he learns that “if you surrendered to the air, you could ride it” (363), severely contrasting Robert Smith.  Though he has escaped from his previous life, he has not now and probably will not ever free himself from the burdens that plague the society from which he ran. 

            Solomon is another character in Song of Solomon who escapes, but is not free.  While Solomon flies back to Africa, he leaves behind his wife and 21 children.  Though he has known the glory of wings, he has left those behind scarred and abandoned.  Freedom cannot be reached with a weight as heavy as this to bear.  Solomon has not been freed, he has merely escaped. 

            Macon Dead Jr. is a man who wishes to be free of the stigmas borne by his race.  In this flight from self, he has lost all ties to his family. Through his search for knowledge, he has become materialistic.  He is a character without any spiritual well-being.  In his success, he has found an escape from the life he did not want into another life that has left his family and himself torn and marred.  Macon Dead Jr. has not freed himself.  He has escaped from himself.

            Pilate is perhaps the only contrast to the latter scenarios.  While her name alone insinuates flight, Milkman makes the observation that she flies without her feet ever leaving the ground.  It is because of this that Pilate is truly free, perhaps the only free character in the novel.  Pilate does not wish to escape from her life, but embraces it and endears her daughter and granddaughter to do the same.  Her only regret at her death is that she wishes she could have known more people, because she “would have loved them all” (361). 

            Though flight is commonly seen as a symbol of freedom, it can also be seen that flight may only be freedom from the lesser of two evils.  Flight in the slave narratives, Push, and Song of Solomon, lends to the idea that escape is more likely that total freedom, because as one person may be freed from one situation, there are still people left behind.  There are still inherently intrinsic characteristics that will never dissipate.  Perhaps the freedom insinuated, is the freedom of the unbearable to the bearable.