As I Lay Dying consist of numerous narrations and individual sections. Each chapter containing a different character’s conscience and thought process. This is called stream of consciousness, by using this method it gives an expression to the confused and disordered flow of thoughts in each character. In addition, most of the chapters and narrators in the novel are from one single family, the Bundren family. In this family the members consist of Addie, Darl, Jewel, Cash, Anse, Dewey, and Vardaman. These characters present great intuition to the events and problems in the household.“It’s because he stays out there, right under the window, hammering and saw on that goddamn box” (14). Having this stream of thought, the reader knows that jewel is…
The characters from As I Lay Dying present a added point of view through the multipe perspectives that establishes credibility to the claims and actions made by different characters in the story. The added perspective of the narrators found throughout the story affects the story by altering the reader's interpretation of the story, allowing the reader to verify the authenticity of the character's claims. This furthers the book's meaning as a whole as the various voices used throughout the story add layers of context and depth as different perspectives intersect and agree on various truths throughout the novel. The stream of consciousness technique creates a environment where some events are generally accepted but nothing is taken as a absolute…
Trauma is defined as an emotional wound or shock that creates substantial, lasting damage to the psychological development of a person or an event or situation that causes great distress and disruption. Toni Morrison wrote, "You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." The heaviness of trauma that has never been addressed can be passed on to further generations leading to its perpetuation. In the novels The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat and Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Ka and Macon Dead Jr. have inherited trauma from their parents, which leads them on expeditions to find out the causes of their parents trauma and in the process discovery of their family history and eventual self discovery.…
Anthony Brandt, an expert editor, once said, “Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.” Although all people are separate from each other in multiple ways, one thing is true: family shapes who you are and will become. Because of this, one can never truly “run away” from family, as they remain a part of whom one has become. The two passages The Rich Brother by Tobias Wolff and Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin tell a story of two different brothers who have grown to be seemingly opposites of each other who end up together years later due to separate life choices. Both stories argue that disparity in childhood leads to conflict; however, siblings always eventually come back to one another, whether good or bad.…
Song of Solomon is a novel of finding self, but in this, one must first find a niche, a home, a family within a group of people. Morrison repeats the coincidence of belonging and finding a sense of self throughout the novel. One of the first instances of this can be seen in Milkman’s mother, Ruth. She had a niche and a comfortable sense of self with her father; however, this was overturned with his death and the complete disintegration of her marriage. With her loss of any connection, intimacy with anyone, she, too lost herself, becoming “a frail woman, content to do tiny things,” with no real life or sense of purpose because she had lost “the only person who ever really cared whether [she] lived or died” (64, 124). Pilate, on the other hand, seems to be an outlier in this novel due to her seeming wisdom, confidence, and self-assurance; however, she too needed acceptance before she could embrace herself in entirety, including her absent naval. The island people of Virginia provided this to her by showing her an ever-accepting family by “watch[ing] over her and [giving] her fewer and lighter chores as her time drew near,” despite her unusual choice not to marry the father of her child (147). Once the island people showed her such kindness and acted as her family, she was able to move on with her own, new family to satisfy that need, now that she knew how to partake in the love, strength, and acceptance necessary for life. Milkman follows her lead in the most obvious example of a sense of place and family being necessary in order to know and accept yourself. Milkman’s journey through this is far more focused on in all the steps, as in a very chronological order he went from being completely disinterested in himself, wandering aimlessly through life from one party to the next to inadvertently delving into his families past until he understood his family and where he stood in it, finally finding interest and purpose in life again. He first really admits this interest…
There are times in individual’s lives when sudden realisations may alter their perception of themselves and their place in the world. The place, context and setting in significant moments in time throughout individual’s lives cause such realisations occur. This can be seen in both the novels “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri and “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Remarque, through the experiences of their characters Paul, Gogol and Ashima. Paul is confronted by his experiences on the front line, where his kinship between his fellow comrades have entrenched him from his own family and society. Likewise, those significant moments partaken by Gogol and Ashima, school excursions and getting a job, have both caused social disturbance and an increased recognition of one’s identity.…
His name is Macon Dead III, usually called Milkman since his mother breastfed him way past infancy. The novel frames Milkman’s life from birth and is about his psychological and moral development, focusing on Milkman’s quest for self-identity, family background and cultural legacy. With Milkman, Morrison created a character who seemingly lives a privileged, comfortable life in the North of America. During this time, he is surrounded by several women composed of his mother, his lover, Pilate, Circe and finally Sweet. Each has its own character but all try to characterize and seize him in their own way playing a unique role in Milkman’s life. With these five women, Ruth, Hagar, Pilate, Circe and Sweet, Toni Morrison illustrates the role of women in Milkman’s development and perception of women, showing that one’s domestic environment must be left to overcome wrong upbringing and teachings and advice. First, this paper examines Milkman’s time at home, his mother Ruth and his lover Hagar. Divided in three parts, this paper examines Milkman’s time at home, then his first breakout attempt and finally his journey to the South with the respective women at his…
Such a Long Journey (SaLJ) by Rohinton Mistry and Song of Solomon (SoS) by Toni Morrison are novels that both showcases the lives of their male protagonist, Gustad and Milkman respectively. In both novels, symbols are used to represent different meanings, and both novels have successfully used them to do so. Even though the symbols from the two books represents different things, they are also both used to show change, which can be seen in the symbols of the black wall and black paper on the windows in SaLJ, and, the symbol of the roses and flight in SoS. This further shows that there are similarities and differences between the symbols in the two books.…
Tony Kushner’s play, Angels In America, explores the trials of the journey of human life through the development of his characters throughout the play. When Rabbi Chemelwitz says “Great Voyages is this world do not any more exist.” (Millennium 16) he speaks only the partial truth. It is true that none of the characters at the funeral can make the same kind of trip Sarah Ironson made, the pilgrimage from her home to a foreign land across the Atlantic. However, the voyage to America Sarah took and the various struggles the characters face have many parallels. Instead of the physical trials of Sarah’s great voyage, they are faced with equally as difficult emotional problems that cause them to make certain choices in the great voyage of their lives. Every character faces some psychological journey throughout the play that takes them to new places emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The best example of all three of these journeys is Prior’s development through the play.…
Toni Morrison begins her novel Song of Solomon in a very unconventional way. Instead of introducing a setting or characters, she retells an incident that without further reading is for the most part incomprehensible. As readers we notice later on in the story the references made throughout the book that relate back to the introductory pages. Some of the main themes such as oral traditions, naming, and especially flight are introduced in the first six pages and are further developed in a very similar format throughout the book.…
Since the beginning of time human beings have had a fascination with human flight. As one watches a bird soar through the air they cannot help but desire that same capability. Imagine the point of view of the world from the bird that flies amoung the mountains, high above the trees, over the ocean and far away from the clamor of everyday life on the ground. To have the freedom and power to release ones self from the tribulations experienced with two feet on the ground, and spring up and away into the peaceful, blue sky, is a common human desire. Since ancient times, flight has represented the opportunity to free ones self from the chains of oppression. This theme of flight is exemplified in the novel Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison. In the conclusion of this novel, Milkman, the protagonist, jumps off of a cliff and towards Guitar Bains,the man that was once Milkman's friend but is now deranged and trying to murder him. The ending is left ambiguous, and it is not known if Milkman soars or simply crumbles to his death, it is only known that he attempts to "ride" the air. Thus, in Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison uses the unknown ending of this novel in conjunction with the ever-present theme of flying to emphasize the importance of Milkman's leap off of the cliff; it is not crucial to know if he soars or if he dies, but that he was able to reach such an understanding with his past as to be able to free himself and attempt to fly.…
take on his new responsibilities as an adult. In conclusion, these three literary elements, setting,…
After the relationship between Addie and the rest of her family has been established, the next problem lies in Darl's relationship to the Bundren family, and especially their attitudes toward him. Darl is always elusive, complicated, thought-provoking, poetic in stream-of-consciousness observations, and especially observant of details. It is through Darl's eyes and observations that the reader gets a full perspective of the other characters.…
The epigraph of Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon introduces the most important and central theme of the novel; flight. It reads “the fathers may soar/And the children may know their names”. The novel is focused on flight and how it affects those left behind; the driving force behind the story is an old tale about Milkman’s great grandfather Solomon flying back to Africa and leaving his wife Ryna behind with 20 children to tend to. Morrison links this tale across space and time to Milkman’s life three generations later. Milkman “flies” away to find out about his past and leaves behind his lover and cousin, Hagar. Throughout the novel, Morrison uses literal and figurative flight as a motif that can be interpreted as a vehicle for human escape; however, it also serves as the catalyst for emotional distress and feelings of abandonment. This abandonment is displayed almost exclusively by the men of the story and the abandoned are almost always the women.…
In DH Lawrence's stories "The Blind Man" and "The Horse Dealer's Daughter," the reader watches as characters move from having something missing in their lives, to being truly whole.…
