Valerie Mead

23 September 2012

Midterm Exam

Web Review

The Flight Myth and Song of Solomon

            From the first mention of the African flight myth in this class, I have been intrigued by the idea and the use of it in literature, especially as it ties in with Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.  Apparently, I am not the only one interested as I found three essays about the subject that were up for review: Martin D. Briones’ essay “Consequences of Flight,” Gordon Lewis’ essay “Flight, Naming, Family, and Dream Motifs in Song of Solomon,” and Jennie Branch’s “Flight: Freedom or Escape.”  All three midterms focus on the issue of flight and how it directly applies to Song of Solomon, with each author exhibiting various strengths and weaknesses worthy of mention.

            Gordon Lewis’s essay is informative and readable, and he uses casual language throughout.  I feel that this was done to make it more understandable and cohesive.  Lewis begins by explaining the origin of the flying African myth, something that I had been wondering about for quite a while.  He talks about how the idea of flight is something that is crucial to Song of Solomon, noting the constant presence of the “Sugarman” rhyme throughout the tale and the actual, literal flight of Milkman into the arms of Guitar or off Ryna’s Gulch.  Lewis then brings up Morrison’s personal reasons for using the myth within the work, which, again, was information that I was unaware of.  The only criticism I have, though minor, is that with a topic as rich and interesting as the African flight myth, why would Lewis think it was necessary to include another topic, naming, with this essay.  The material could have been the focus of the entire essay and it would have been explained with greater detail because of it.

            While Lewis chose to focus on the background information, Martin D. Briones’ essay “Consequences of Flight” chose to focus on what happens because of flight and how flight can be seen and used as an escape mechanism.  This is an idea that can be seen in many slave narratives as well.  He feels that flight is used in Song of Solomon to describe a “journey or voyage” that the characters take, mainly discussing Milkman and his “flight for knowledge.”  He stipulates that they may be fleeing from the Dream, an idea which never occurred to me in my reading of the text.  The language being used is simple and clear; Briones does this in order to make sure his point will be understood by those reading it.  Briones sticks to the topic and ties in the idea of the Flying African nicely with Morrison’s work, bringing up connections and inferences that I missed in my reading of it.  There is very little to criticize of this essay; other than the small matter of paragraph formations and length, I wouldn’t bring anything else up.      

            Like Briones, Jennie Branch does not discuss the history and background information to the flight myth as extensively as Lewis does, but instead focuses on how the idea of the flight myth connects with the concept of escape or freedom.  She does this by tying in the concept with Song of Solomon and as well as the classic slave narratives.  Branch says that flight is inexorably tied with the idea that “Milkman seeks to be freed from his life.”  She feels that the only way for Milkman to do this is to “seek knowledge of himself and his family” and thinks that while he may have freed himself in some regard, he will always be haunted by Hagar’s death and his possible involvement in it, which was something that had not occurred to me.  Branch goes on to say that because of this, it should be noted that Milkman did not gain freedom, but rather escaped the life he had and hated, which are two very different things.  Branch uses concise and clear language, and she also makes sure that all of the thematic elements of her paper tie in with one another, which helps the reader to follow what she is saying. 

            Lewis, Briones, and Branch all wrote on virtually the same topic, that of the African Flying myth, and all somehow tie it in to the novel Song of Solomon.  The authors each gave information on the flight myth and then went on to explain how and with what significance it related to the book.  There were several parts of the essays that I gained information from, though some of it, of course, was already information I knew from attending lecture.  This informative process derived from reading these essays was slightly different than how I would normally learn in class.  This was more direct and focused, without people fighting to be heard and speaking over one another, more like if I were having a discussing with a person as opposed to a fast paced lecture.  Though both forms are effective, they each have their benefits. 

Essay

Living the Dream: Strong Female Characters in African American Literature

            There have been many examples of strong, vibrant female characters and authors have appeared throughout African American literature.  Unlike their white counterparts, many of these women are strong simply because they have to be.  Because of circumstances out of their control--race, gender, and sociopolitical status--they are forced to live a life based on The Dream and not the dominant culture’s ideal of the American Dream.  African American women such as Harriet Jacobs, Maya Angelou, and the character of Pilate from Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon are strong because they are living The Dream.  The American Dream emphasizes immediate individual success. This differs from The Dream, which is collective as racial identity and millennial rather than immediate.  This causes these dreams to usually be unfulfilled, as The Dream factors in all of the possible setbacks one could encounter.  Another hindrance these women faced is the unspoken fact that as women of color they were practically considered double minorities at that time for being both black and female. This caused them to face different obstacles for each separate minority status.  However troubling these problems may be, it should be known that facing these oppositions (and many others), while troubling and harmful, is part of what helped to make these women so strong in the first place.

            Though many works were written about The Dream long before Dr. King’s speech, his use of language and figurative speech often draw readers back because his words so elegantly bring together the concept of The Dream.  Dr. King says of The Dream “even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.”  This is a thought that is present, in some form or another, in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Song of Solomon, and “Still I Rise.”  Even though the women behind and in these works are living The Dream and facing difficulties simply because of their race and gender, there is some element of hope left within them that allows them  to remain strong and struggle through their tribulations. 

This idea, crystallized by Dr. King, can be seen with the struggles Harriet Jacobs goes through with her owner, who wants desperately to have a sexual relationship with her, voluntarily or not.  This became evident when he “began to whisper foul words in [her] ears.”  This also highlights the fact that because of her gender, Harriet was almost a double minority, being forced to do things that male slaves were not, like have sexual relationships with her master or being bred to have more children to increase the slaveholder’s capital, as others were.  Harriet was able to maintain her strength because she had hope, saying “we often planned together how we could get to the north.”  This also shows that Harriet is thinking and acting collectively while planning her escape, which further ties in with the collectiveness of The Dream.  Harriet lives only for the future she can potentially have, which is what keeps her motivated and strong.  However, she is constantly facing obstacles, such as her master, that keep her from attaining her goal, which is a concept central to The Dream.    

As with Harriet Jacobs, the character of Pilate from Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is also living The Dream.  This can be proven by the fact that she is constantly working towards a goal, which is keeping her granddaughter Hagar “happy,” effectively “spoiling” the woman rotten.  This goal, like most in The Dream, is interrupted, this time by the fact that Hagar is not kept happy long, bouncing from one desire to the next.  Her central unhappiness, the loss of Milkman, is something that is completely beyond Pilate’s control to fix, thus effectively insuring that she would work her hardest, all to never truly reach her goal of keeping Hagar happy.  Pilate does all of this with Reba, which shows that an amount of collectivism is present in attaining her goal, though it is never met, a “dream deferred”.  Pilate is strong because of all the hardships she went through, having to live as a black person in the Jim Crow South and a woman in a time when women did not have all the advantages and rights that men did.  However, it should be noted that constantly working towards a goal that will never be reached also strengthens a person, or at least her soul, as well.  For Pilate, as with Harriet, there must have been some element of hope left that still propelled her to move forward and keep trying; the same inner strength and fortitude responsible for her birth and travels across the country caused her to not give up on her dream in life, not matter how fruitless it may have seemed.

Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” is one of strength and empowerment, showing she exudes the type of confidence Pilate had.  Angelou leaves the impression that though life may be hard because of the many oppressors out there, she will not be beaten down, which is the same resolution and determination that Hagar and Jacobs had.  Like Jacobs, Angelou speaks about racial tensions and gender issues, showing that she at least feels she is a double minority.  Unlike Phyllis Wheatley’s poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Angelou is very direct about the topics at hand, bluntly asking questions such as “does my sexiness upset you?”  Her boldness correlates with her strength, marking her as a strong, dominant woman.  At this time, women were given full and equal status with men under the law, but there was still sexism, discrimination, and racism evident everywhere.  Angelou is living The Dream in the poem insomuch as she desperately wants to live her own life, one as she sees fit; however, she is unable to do so because of the world around her and the people in it.  She wants that life of utter freedom, but people who tell “bitter, twisted lies” and lead a life of “hatefulness” prevent her from doing so.  Living in this world and facing all the opposition that she did helped to make her a strong woman.  Also, within The Dream, there is the constant need to rise and rise again, which is obviously seen here, with Angelou saying “but still, like dust, I’ll rise.”  Angelou says “just like hopes springing high,” thereby showing the element of hope that all three women appear to share.  This is the hope that gets her through living in the world she does, the hope that gets her through the hardest parts of life.

African American literature often contains the idea of The Dream, an idea that was put most directly and elegantly in Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  The Dream is collective, millennial, and usually unfulfilled.  It takes a strong person to live according to such a dream, and because of that there are many strong women depicted in African American works.  This is true of Pilate from Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Harriet Jacobs in her narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise.”  All three women are strong because they have to be and their hope is the only thing that gets them through the difficulties they face in life.  It can truly be said that these strong women are all living The Dream and using hope to get by.

Research Options

The Great Frontier

There are many topics that have struck my attention for the topic of minority literature.  I would prefer to do my research in the form of the two research posts or perhaps a conference or research paper.  I am still deciding between three relatively different topics.  I was considering doing the posts on the flying African myths.  This could perhaps be broken into two where one describes the myth’s origin and the other about its popularity (or lack thereof now) here in America.  A second possible topic could be that of the color code.  Two possible research posts could be about how its reversal can be empowering (as is seen with Toni Morrison and others) and another about how it shows up in minority literature.  A third possible topic would be that of origin stories/myths.  I would break this down into two posts, one about how most origin myths differ from the origin story Africans have to tell because most came to this country as slaves; the second would be about how Native American origin myths compare with the Judeo-Christian Genesis story.  None of these topics or subtopics are set in stone and I am open to instructor feedback and commentary on the issue.