Marisela Caylor

October 3, 2012 

Web Review

Leah Guillory “Milkman’s Rise”

            In Leah Guillory’s short essay, she discussed the events lead to Milkman’s eventual “flight” at the end of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. She examines the courage it took for Milkman to “dissolve the…bands which connect[s] him with [the others]?” Guillory explains that throughout the novel, Milkman is a lost soul that seems to be hungry for familial connections that he cannot get within his nuclear family. This assertion is something that Ms. Guillory examines and eventually explains that with Milkman’s new found knowledge about the paternal side of the family begins to feed his soul. Milkman is hungry for any provincial family connections and through his travels to the South, he finds a history that leads him to a path to freedom. Guillory’s essay touches on Milkman’s “back to nature” adventure that leads him away from his “mindless middle-class existence” in which he works for his father as a drone. The examples taken from the novel that Guillory uses to reference to Milkman’s flight are remarkable. She also includes examples from the slave narratives of Fredrick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano to assert courage that are similar to Milkman’s eventual “rise.” I did agree with Guillory’s overall assertions that courage leads to Milkman’s flight. However, I do not agree that Milkman’s own “self-determination” lead to his courage to be able to “fly”. I believe that Milkman is hungry for knowledge but is a product of a modern, inner city community that is lead by a capitalistic father and confused and depressed mother. At some point, self-determination comes into the picture but I believe Milkman is depressed and disillusioned about his own “dream.” He finally realizes that without the literal gold there is no escape and he is trapped like a slave of the past. The knowledge he gains is beneficial and brings him some joy but it is not enough when you were “born already Dead.” Flight is his only escape.

Jennifer Jones “As the Pendulum Swings: The Victimization of African American Women”

            Jennifer Jones’s essay presents the topic of the loss of the “mothering instinct” in African American slave women due to their “forced participation” in the institution of slavery. Their motherly instincts have been abolished due to their children being sold like cattle once they are weaned off the breast. Jones asserts that slaveholders would impregnate their female slaves without any reason but to satisfy their desires or increase their property by producing more children. Jones states: “Masters bought and sold these women as easily as they might buy or sell a cow.” However, the victims of such abuse would soon become mothers, only to be told to deny their mothering instinct. The children would “take the condition of the mother” and become enslaved themselves. Ms. Jones describes Fredrick Douglass’s lack of relationship with his own mother who he would only see at night during sporadic visits. Over time, the visits become nonexistent and soon, Douglass learns she has died and does not mourn her because he never knew her as a mother figure. Jones also describes the unfortunate dilemma in which African American women behaved towards their children after they were forced to ignore the instinct to be mothers to their children. Jones describes the behavior of Celie in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and how her “forced participation” in rape by her father leaves her jaded and misguided. Jones states the men have been degrading women while in slavery but in Celie’s case, the degradation occurs after the Civil War and by her own father. Celie’s father even participates in an even more disturbing act of selling off her both children to the “highest bidder.” This heinous act continued to skew Celie’s outlook on life and leaves her permanently scarred. Jones’s examples within literature include examples of Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Maya Angelou’s poem, Still I Rise that contribute to the examples of the “voiceless and choiceless” women in African American literature. Jones’s examples were terrific and her argument was validated by these examples. I did agree with her argument that even during slavery and after slavery ended, African American women continue to be abused and oppressed. Jones also went on to give examples in which African American women participate in the emotional abuse towards other women.

Giselle Hewitt “Sexual Objectification and Empowerment Through Sexuality of African American in Literature”

            Giselle Hewitt’s essay focuses on a particularly curious subject of women as a “double minority” and she describes the struggles African American women endure through the decades following slavery. Hewitt points out that the experience of a minority woman is harder due to her minority status and her powerless status of being born female. Hewitt uses great examples from Harriet Jacobs’s narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl to expose the ramifications female slaves endure at the hands of their lust-driven masters. Hewitt cites “African American’s original “social contract” with the dominant culture was one of “forced participation” and their initial relationship with the dominant culture was as property, while African American women were further lowered in their status as property to being used as sexual objects by their owners.” In this instance, a fifteen year old Harriet is immediately forced to hear sexually explicit messages from her master and she fears she will have to succumb to his desires or be beaten or killed. Due to her “double minority” status, Harriet is forced into the adult world without even having a proper childhood. Her experience is not that different from many other minority groups that do not have the luxury of prolonged childhood. In the essay, Hewitt cites an article, The Impossible Dilemma which finds that “In 1992… young black females (largely as the result of sexual assault) were 70 percent more likely than their white counterparts… to be victims of crimes.” This statistic occurs many years after slavery; however, the “double minority” label follows these women throughout the years. The hundreds of years in bondage continue to follow these women throughout the years following slavery. Unfortunately, African American women are more prone to these assaults due to a number of factors including: illiteracy, adopted or extended families, and misogynistic views that are more apparent within minority culture. Hewitt includes the Dead sisters in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon as another example of the objectification of women and in this case, by their own father. Macon Dead showcased his daughters as another sign of his success and they were taught at a young age, to only speak when spoken to. This idea is prevalent in several literary examples in Hewitt’s essay such as Precious Jones in Push and includes Ruth and Pilate in Morrison’s Song of Solomon. This essay was intriguing and the examples Hewitt uses were particularly good. I agreed with her use of Harriet Jacobs’s narrative which serves as an incredible example of the “double minority” theme that is so apparent in American Minority Literature.

Innocence Lost: The Loss of Adolescence in African American Literature

            Throughout the novels, poems, and slave narratives we have explored in American Minority Literature, a common theme exists within all these pieces of literature. The loss of a childhood or adolescence is persistent throughout the African American experience. This loss of a childhood becomes an important fact that affects African Americans throughout their lives and affects their long-term outlook on life. We learned in class that minority groups suffer from this “rushed” childhood due to unfortunate conditions that were “forced” upon them beginning during the time of slaves. This “forced participation” continues to affect African Americans and continues throughout different time periods. I will examine this loss of childhood and its long-term effects of their “American Dream” in Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Fredrick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave, Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Countee Cullen’s poem, “Incident,” and Milkman’s loss in Toni Morrison’s novel, Song of Solomon.          

            The most poignant example of loss of childhood exists within Olaudah Equiano’s narrative when he is taken from his family at eleven years old. Equiano begins his narrative describing his family and his role as the youngest and the “greatest favourite [sic] of my mother” (2). The first half of his childhood is filled with wonderful memories and great adventures; however, this is changed when he is kidnapped by a group of robbers for the slave trade. His innocence is stolen and contributes to his sadness and dismay throughout his adolescence. Equiano’s forced participation in the institution of slavery robs him of a proper childhood and he is forced to “grow up” quickly because he must care/accompany his master’s children. Equiano becomes part of an American Dream but not his own Dream.

            As Equiano is taken from one owner to the next, he does receive good treatment considering his condition as a slave. However, his first experience proves his fear of his “condition,” he runs away, only to return after becoming frightened in the woods. Ultimately, Equiano realizes that “any attempt to return home would be hopeless” (4). Equiano’s immediate “dream” is to escape this condition but his youth and naivety contribute to his return to his master’s house. Equiano’s childhood hopes are of returning home and he “remarked where the sun rose in the morning, and set in the evening, as I had traveled along” as a reminder of where home used to be (3). His notation of the sun and moon served as a “childish way” to fulfill his dream of returning back to his parents. Unfortunately, this childhood hope will remain unfulfilled. Equiano is sold from one family to the next and remains a loyal companion to families that are kind to him and treat him like a relative. But no matter how many times he falls into a loving family, he is reminded of his condition and will soon wield the responsibilities of an adult at the ripe old age of eleven.

At one point, Equiano meets his sister and he is once again, filled with hope and joy. However, his childish joy is put to rest when she is taken away from him and he begins to realize that his childhood is over. Equiano remarks that his sister was “…thou dear partner of all my childish sports” is gone forever (5). Once he leaves this island, his true childhood will be gone forever. After Equiano leaves the island, hi dreams of ever returning to his family are vanquished and he is forced to become an adult. Equiano is forced to rid himself of any childish notions and dreams and becomes a forced participant in slavery. His adolescence is spent working for other families and not enjoying the games and leisure of just being a child. Like many African American children, he is forced to contribute to the families’ income and in this case, his master’s income.

Like Equiano, Harriet Jacobs’s experiences a loss of childhood and adolescence beginning with the loss of her mother. This loss highlights Harriet’s condition as a slave. This realization begins to chip away at Harriet’s psyche and exposes her diminishing childhood. Her mistress was kind when she was younger but as Harriet began to get older, she knew these carefree days were numbered. Her condition as a slave would soon begin to become more prominent in her teenage years. Harriet voices her frustration in Incidents: “The slave child had no thought for the morrow; but there came that blight, which too surely waits on every human being born to be a chattel” (5). Once again, Harriet sees another “mother-figure” pass away and she is only left with her elderly grandmother who does not live with her. This diminishing childhood figures begin to die away and soon Harriet is left to her own accord against the cruel reality of her master’s desires. Her master, Mr. Flint quickly begins to corrupt young Harriet and keeps her in continuous fear for her life if she does not succumb to his wishes. Harriet is “voiceless and choiceless” in this circumstance and she does not want to let her grandmother know what is going on because she will be judged by her as well. Many African American slave women were caught in this dilemma but did not have any choice but to accept that their bodies belonged to their master. Harriet describes the condition of the female slave as the “greatest curse” being born female and cursed once again, if she is born “beautiful” (9). The female slave will suffer from sexual abuse from her master and constant jealousy and rage from her master’s wife just for being born a female. These early childhood hardships are numerous in African American literature and begin to chip away at the young people who have to endure such horrors.

In Fredrick Douglass’s slave narrative, he described horrible childhood events that solidified his “condition” as a slave. Douglass’s childhood is similar to Equiano and Jacobs in which early in life his mother is taken from him and he does not have a typical motherly relationship with her. Douglass describes the “custom” in which is enacted to slave children once they are born and taken away from their mothers. He describes this “custom” of the separation in his narrative: “For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result” (1.3). Throughout Fredrick’s childhood he saw several unnatural acts which involved several of his own family members. Douglass recalls witnessing the severe beating of an aunt as “quite a child” but this memory solidifies his departure from childhood into a realization of the “blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery” which he had now entered (1.11). Douglass’s childhood trauma catapulted him into early adulthood like many African Americans we have read during the semester. The destruction of the “traditional” family ties and the horrible condition of slavery contributed to Douglass’s horrific childhood memories and a loss of adolescence. His “forced participation” as a slave, demands that he cared for children that are his age and work in the field instead of having leisure time like one would have in any normal childhood. Time and time again, we are forced to see the destruction of a normal childhood for African American children.

At times, a particular moment can solidify a certain ideal that had yet to be recognized by a naïve child. In Countee Cullen’s poem, “Incident” we are faced with another example of a child’s romantic notion of life that is unrealistic due to their “blackness.” Cullen’s poem described a time in Baltimore when he was eight years old and another child called him a “nigger.” This memory is all that he could recall and instead of a happy childhood memory, it morphed into a traumatic event. This poem also serves as an example of the quick destruction of a certain ideal held in a childish imagination that is destroyed in an instant by a racist society. At such an early age, Cullen, Douglass, Jacobs, and Equiano are exposed to such adult ideals at such an early age and survived these traumatic events. However unfortunate their childhoods were, these authors endured and inspired many people with their courageous narratives and poems.

One last example of a “lost” childhood is in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. This particular example is one of almost a prolonged childhood, but still a lost childhood. At the hands of his mother, Ruth, “Milkman” Dead is forced to continue breastfeeding and at the hands of his capitalistic father, Macon Dead, he is forced to become his lackey. At the hands of two present but bickering parents, Milkman never enjoyed the childhood games and songs like other children. Milkman seemed to have skipped these adolescent years due to his father’s possessive hold on his family. While breastfeeding Milkman, Ruth senses “his restraint, his courtesy, his indifference, all of which pushed her into fantasy” (Morrison 13). This indifference was overlooked by Ruth due to her need of affection from someone. Her husband, Macon was not a loving man at all and Ruth’s desire for affection translated into the prolonged breastfeeding of her son, Milkman. After being discovered by a colleague of her husband, Ruth discontinues the breastfeeding. Milkman’s father, Macon has a strong hold on the family and is only out for materialistic gains. This translates into a distant father-son relationship that is strained when he learns Milkman has been seeing Pilate, Macon’s estranged sister. To keep up appearances, Macon Dead shuttles the family on Sunday car rides to show his wealth to the neighborhood. These drives appear to be the only times in the novel, other than at the dinner table that the family is together. Milkman’s yearning for any kind of familial connections become almost repressed when he begins to work with his father as a rent collector. Macon keeps his son busy to keep him away from his sister and anything from his own past. Macon is trying to realize his “American Dream” and keeping his son from realizing his own “Dream” of reconnecting to the past in order to move onto the future. After traveling to Danville to search for gold from his father’s past, Milkman learns about his family’s history and begins to realize his own non-existent childhood when he hears a group of children singing songs. Milkman explains: “He’d never played like that as a child. As soon as he got up of his knew at the window sill grieving he could not fly, and went off to school, his velvet suit separated him from the other children” (Morrison 264). Milkman grieves for a childhood lost by the hands of both his mother and father. Milkman had his parents in his life but his father’s denial of the past is what is keeping Milkman from progressing. He is aching for some type of connection with his past. Morrison’s novel takes place in a different time period but the story of a repressed or destroyed childhood is existent throughout the history.

The loss of childhood/adolescence for African Americans in literature is an important theme that will result in a skewed outlook on life. For many of these authors, this time in their life affected them greatly; however, they resolved to move forward and gain courage to share their unfortunate memories. These narratives, poems, and novels serve as a reminder to thrive to get better as human beings and learn from the mistakes of the past.

Research Essay Proposal

I was intrigued by The Flying Africans folktale while reading Song of Solomon and I plan to research the legend of The Flying Africans from various groups retelling of the story. I will also integrate Milkman’s own flight at the end and try to research the argument of the ending of the story by reviewing several questions including: Did Milkman die at the end of the novel? Did The Flying Africans really “fly” to Africa or did they commit suicide?  Was the legend of The Flying Africans a type of coping mechanism for African Americans? Why did Toni Morrison use folklore in her “modern” novel?

I am very interested in this subject and became even more intrigued when we encountered this argument during our class discussion on Song of Solomon and several of the other students agreed that Milkman did not commit suicide but I did feel strongly that this was the part of him being “free.” This flight was the last flight and he was free after learning about his family’s past.