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MAGIC REALISM IN TONI MORRISON'S "SONG OF SOLOMON"
Albert Sheqi
(Tirana, Albania)
This article focuses on Toni Morrison's use of magical realism in her novel Song of Solomon. It aims at exploring the main features of the literary trend and pointing out some key elements of their use in the novel. Magical realist techniques are used by Morrison to juxtapose the oral andfolkloric Afro-American tradition with the dominant Western culture in the United States. The former becomes a counterbalance to the written versions of history. Her main hero embarks on an epic journey to discover the "real gold" of the African-American community. Song of Solomon is Morrison literary tour de force which underscores the true values the black community.
Keywords: Afro-American Fiction, Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon, Magical Realism, Flying Africans.
Toni Morrison is one of the most outstanding writers of contemporary American fiction. She has written ten novels so far and her most recent novel is entitled Home (2012). Two of her novels Song of Solomon and Beloved have been highly evaluated by literary critics and scholars as well as widely hailed as great American 20th century classics. These two works reveal an impressive and salient element of the writer's aesthetics, her magical realism. Morrison does not object to being labeled a magical realist writer and she has admitted that in her writing career she has been influenced by the great magical realists of the Latin American literature, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges. In spite of this influence from the Latin American masters, her brand of magical realism bears an original imprint which stems from the African American folklore and myths. This article aims at exploring Morrison's magical realism in Song of Solomon. But, first of all, it is helpful to briefly summarize the development ofthis literary trend and to point out some ofits essential elements.
Although magical realism is often associated with the Latin American writers who actually made it very popular worldwide, it is in fact an international literary movement with representatives from different literatures around the world. The term 'magical realism' was coined by the German art critic Franz Roh in 1925, but he employed it to refer to a painting style which he believed was a distinct form of surrealism. His theories had an impact on European and Latin American literatures and the term eventually found its way into literature in the 1950s. We can basically distinguish between two types of magical realism: the scholarly surrealistic type which is mainly found in European writing and the mythic or folk-loric type mainly cultivated by the Latin American masters. American magical realism seems closer to the latter.
Maggie Ann Bowers argues that "... writers currently in conditions of oppression in the United States, such as Native American, Chicano and African Americans, have also adopted magical realism as a means to write against dominant American culture"1. Furthermore she holds that "Toni Morrison writes magical realist narratives that draw from her cross-cultural context as an African American. Her narratives are influenced by African American oral culture and mythology adapted from West African culture"2. It is this peculiar African American element which Morrison instills into the trend that has enriched magical realism and makes for her distinctive mark.
Whether European, Latin American or American, magical realist novels are written by writers devoid of political power who gain strength through the power of words. These novels portray complex historical narratives from subaltern points of view, "... magical realism has become associated with fictions that tell the tales of those on the margins of political power and influential society"3. Hence, their ability to tell their own version of history through fiction becomes in itself their empowering tool. This feature of magical realist writing is in keeping with Morrison's belief that good novels are undoubtedly 'political as well as very beautiful'. Belonging to the Afro-American community, Morrison has made use of magical realism to challenge the versions of documented history. She has shown particular interest in unearthing the dusted and forlorn pages of history. However, in this article, our intention is to focus on the aesthetic aspect ofher magical realism.
In trying to define magical realism, scholars of the literary trend capture as the essence of it the mixture of fantastical and real events. Stuart Sim holds that "... magic realism is a form founded on thejuxtaposition
of two modes of representation which normally exist in opposition: realism and the fantastic. (Magical realists) create narratives in which the realistic elements of the text are continually being undercut by the intrusion of impossible or inexplicable events"4. Whereas J. A. Cuddon maintains that "some key features of this kind of fiction are the mingling and juxtaposition of the realistic and the fantastic or bizarre, skillful time shifts, convoluted and even labyrinthine narratives and plots, miscellaneous use of dreams, myths and fairy stories, expressionistic and even surrealistic description, arcane erudition, the element of surprise or abrupt shock, the horrific and the inexplicable"5. Chris Baldick highlights that "the term has also been extended to works from different cultures, designating a tendency of the modern novel to reach beyond the confines of realism and draw upon the energies of fable, folktale and myth while retaining a strong contemporary social relevance"6. It is well known that 'the inexplicable events' which are usually incorporated in magical realist novels are flight, levitation, telepathy and telekinesis. Some of these striking elements of magical realism are present in Morrison's Song of Solomon, especially the myth of the flying African, strange and unexplainable events and labyrinthine narrative structure.
Song of Solomon is a novel of education, a bildungsroman, which portrays the saga of the Dead family. The novel is set in an unnamed city in Michigan and in the second part the setting shifts to the rural villages of Danville in Pennsylvania and Shalimar in Virginia. The novel covers a time span from 1931 to I960 with flashbacks going as far back in the past as pre-Civil War American South. It has also been regarded as a novel which features the coming of age of Macon (Milkman) Dead, his quest for the Golden Fleece which ends in his recovery ofthe family roots.
At the heart of Song of Solomon is the myth of the Flying African. However, it has been easy for many critics and scholars to associate Milkman's desire to fly to the Icarus myth ofancient Greece. Useful as Greek Icarus myth might seem to scholars studying the novel, it does not entirely account for all the actions of the character. On the "flying myth" in Song of Solomon Morrison has stated that: "If it means Icarus to some readers, fine; I want to take credit for that. But my meaning is specific: it is about black people who could fly. That was always part ofthe folklore of my life; flying was one of our gifts. I don't care how silly it may seem. It is everywhere - people used to talk about it, it's in the spirituals and gospels"7. It is a statement which clearly expresses the author's unhap-piness that some readers and scholars fail to understand the gist of the
myth underlying the novel and her subtle intertwining of the Western Icarus myth with the African American one. Milkman's flight evokes a traditional Gullah folk tale about slaves who overcome subjugation in Southern cotton plantations by flying back to Africa. Thus, by alluding to two great literary narratives Morrison endows the flight to freedom with an epic quality. The desire to escape slavery has been a constant and powerful force in the history ofhumanity.
However, what clearly distinguishes the two myths is the use of wings. In the Daedalus and Icarus myth, father and son use wax wings to fly from the labyrinth where king Minos of Crete imprisoned them. However, Icarus flew too close to the sun, his wings melted and he fell into the sea. Song of Solomon begins with Robert Smith's suicidal flight using silk wings from the top of Mercy Hospital. His flight ends in death just like Icarus. Morrison's myth is, as she herself has put it "about black people who could fly"; who take off from the ground without the use of wings. Milkman's great-grandfather flew away from slavery back home to Africa. He needed no wings for that. This is perplexing for Milkman who asks "When you say 'flew off you mean he ran away, don't you? Escaped?" and Susan replies "No, I mean flew. Oh, it's just foolishness, you know, but according to the story he wasn't running away. He was flying. He flew. You know, like a bird"8. Although what unites the two myths is the main characters' desire for freedom, even at this point, Morrison adds the African American element of the pain which this flight to freedom leaves behind for the abandoned wife and children, an element that she clearly emphasizes in the epigraph of the novel which reads "that fathers may soar / and children to know their names." No action, however glorious it may seem, comes without some negative repercussions.
Another element which pushes the novel in the realm of magical realism is the fact that the black community believes that flight of black people is not a myth, they think it is possible and natural. The observers of Robert Smith's flight encourage him rather than rush to prevent his leap, implying that they do not see his flight as a suicide attempt. Instead, the onlookers behave as though Smith's flight might be possible. For the long period of time during which Milkman doubts the possibility of human flight, he remains abnormal in the eyes of his community. Only when he begins to believe in the reality of flight does he cease to feel alienated. This magical realist feature is used by the author to add to the Western Icarus myth the African American dimension.
One other important element to add here, which generally goes unnoticed by readers, is that the novel reverberates of not just one western myth, it evokes Jason's myth and his quest for the Golden Fleece as well as Odysseus's returning home. The novel includes Biblical allusions such as Lazarus's cave or the female characters' names are all taken from the Bible. Be it Western myths or Biblical allusions, Morrison masterfully subverts them.
In the same fashion, Morrison makes use of the subversive quality of language, mainly through the use of names. The story of the name of the street inhabited by the black community is highly symbolic and similar to Morrison's own use of her fictional language which aims at 'bearing witness' and subverting the dominant culture. The post office and the city authorities only recognize it as Mains Avenue, but the local black residents know it as Doctor Street, because the only black doctor they could visit used to live in that street. Letters addressed to residents living in that street caused confusion for the post office employees who "returned [them] ... or passed them on to the Dead Letter Office"9. The street "acquired a quasi-official status" only when black people were being drafted for the army in 1918. Not without sarcasm, Morrison writes: "Some city legislators, whose concern for appropriate names and the maintenance of the city's landmarks was the principal part of their political life, saw to it that "Doctor Street" was never used in any official capacity"10. They prepare a public notice to inform the residents of that street that it "had always been and would always be known as known as Mains Avenue and not Doctor Street". However, the city legislators' attempt to clarify the matter of the name contrasts sharply with the residents' way of giving names. "It was a genuinely clarifying public notice because it gave the Southside residents a way to keep their memories alive and please the city legislators as well. They called it Not Doctor Street."11 What makes this episode so striking is the author's ability tojuxtapose the two different ways of providing names: for the city legislators sticking to the official version is very important whereas for the black community it is a very pragmatic matter. The name they have for the street is clearly associated with the only black doctor where they could cure their diseases and upon his death they started calling the street Not Doctor Street. The residents follow the same logic with Mercy Hospital which they call No Mercy Hospital.
The family's surname is also very metaphorical. Dead was the surname given to Macon and Pilate's father by a drunken Yankee soldier at
the Freedmen Bureau. The soldier was drunk and he wrote all the information which their illiterate father was saying to him into the wrong box. Written by a soldier the episode is a clear allusion of the way African American history has been written in the official documents. Although for three generations the Deads have continued to use that surname, the time has come for Milkman to embark on his quest to find out the truth about his family's origin. The truth lies hidden in a cave in a remote village in Virginia and in a children's song.
During his journey to find the 'cave of gold' Milkman goes to the dilapidated mansion of the Butlers, the white people who killed his grandfather, where to his great surprise he finds Circe, the Butlers' black maid and the person who sheltered his father and aunt. Milkman's encounter with Circe is also a vested with magic. She is full of classical reverberations and is portrayed as the classical Circe of the Greek mythology. "Milkman struggled for a clear thought, so hard to come by in a dream: Perhaps this woman is Circe. But Circe is dead. This woman is alive. That was as far as he got, because although the woman was talking to him, she might in any case still be dead - as a matter of fact she had to be dead"12. Morrison subverts even Circe myth as we find it in The Odyssey. The classical Circe lived in the island of Aeaea and turned people into beasts. She became a hinderer not a helper in Odysseus journey. Circe in Song of Solomon lives with a host of Weimaraner dogs who seem to have "the eyes of children"13 and to Milkman she seems like a ghost. However, she was a helper for Macon and Pilate, and she also helps Milkman with correct guidelines how to find 'the cave ofgold'.
There are also many other strange and unexplainable events which further push Song of Solomon into magical realism. Milkman's conception and birth is surrounded by a shroud of magic. Trudier Harris interprets the event in this way: "There is magic in Pilate giving Ruth a portion to administer in Macon Dead's food in order to ensure Milkman's conception, and there is the added trauma of Macon trying to force an abortion once he learns that his four-day renewed sexual attraction to his wife has led to her pregnancy"14. It is Pilate who prophecies, arranges and watches over Milkman's birth. "She gave me funny things to do. And some greenish-gray grassy-looking staff to put in his food"15. She also scares Macon through black magic and fends off his attempts to end his wife's pregnancy. "Pilate put a small doll on Macon's chair in the office. A male doll with a small painted chicken bone struck between its legs and a round red circle painted on its belly. [...] he left Ruth alone after that"16.
She becomes Milkman's mentor and guides him in hisjourney to recover the forgotten past oftheir family.
Pilate's birth is also considered a magical event as she was born without a navel. "After their mother died, she had come struggling out of the womb without help from throbbing muscles or the pressure of swift womb water. As a result, for all the years he knew her, her stomach was as smooth and sturdy as her back, at no place interrupted by a navel. It was the absence of a navel that convinced people that she had not come into this world through normal channels"17. The navel is the connection of the child to his mother, by the same token to her community. Pilate, who was brought into the world by a dead mother and given a "Christ-killing name" by her father embarks on her mission to help in the conception, birth and upbringing of Milkman, her Christ-like nephew.
Pilate has a companion which further pushes the novel in the realm of magical realism, her father's ghost. "She paid close attention to her mentor - the father who appeared before her sometimes and told her things. After Reba was born, he no longer came to her dressed as he had been on the woods' edge and in the cave, when she and Macon had left Circe's house. Then he had worn the coveralls and heavy shoes he was shot in. now he came in a white shirt, a blue collar, and a brown peaked cap"18. Moreover, as it turns out by the end of the novel, the sack that Pilate carries everywhere she goes does not contain the bones of the white person that Macon and she erroneously believe they murdered in the cave. The sack is filled with the skeletal bones oftheir father.
There are also strong metafictional elements in Song of Solomon which are mainly to be found in the stories that Pilate and her brother, Macon, narrate to Milkman. However there is an essential difference in their respective narrations. Macon, who has adopted the qualities of white people, only tells part of the story when forced by his son, whereas Pilate seems an innate storyteller, one that follows the griot tradition of oral storytelling. Both their stories focus on their family history and their murdered father but Milkman's attraction to Pilate's house and her storytelling is clear throughout the novel.
When one closely analyses the structure of magic realist novels one discerns that it resembles a cobweb. The author starts several lines which are gradually interconnected and all end in the center. The reader remains then trapped in the complexity of the plot lines and finds it difficult to come to reliable conclusions. This is also the case in Song of Solomon. In the beginning, the author starts with a plot line that focuses on the insurance agent
Robert Smith and the main character's birth. Then, the reader is taken in a new direction. Only by the end of novel does the reader learn and understand the plight of Robert Smith and the reason for his suicide, when his story intertwines with that of Guitar as member of Seven Days, a black retaliation criminal group. However, the novel starts with Smith's failed flight and ends with Milkman's 'epic successful flight' to maturity and self-realization.
In conclusion, we can say that Song of Solomon ranges with the best magical realist novels of the 20th century. The elements which make it a magical realist novel are the emblematic features of magic realism as a literary trend: mixture of the magic with the realistic, intricate plot structure, skillful time shifts, rural or local settings, ghosts, inexplicable or bizarre occurrences and erudite allusions from Bible and classic literature. Furthermore, Morrison has made use of magical realism not just to challenge the dominant American culture and Western myths but also to reach beyond them and embed into them the Afro-American tradition. The novel's focus on the black community does not make it a regional novel because its themes are universal and the African American community serves as a synecdoche for the entire human society. Milkman's quest toward self-discovery, Macon Dead Jr.'s mania for material riches, Pilate's never-ending love for people, Hagar's suicide from broken heart and rejected love, and Guitar's hurtful hunger for revenge are indeed classic literary themes that permeate all great literary traditions.
Notes
1 Maggie Ann Bowers. Magic(al) Realism. New York: Routledge, 2004. P. 46.
2 Ibid. P. 55.
3 Ibid. P.31.
4 Stuart Sim (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 2001. P.310.
5 Cuddon J. A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. 4th edition, London: Penguin Books 1998. P. 488.
6 Chris Baldick. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: OxfordUniversityPress, 1990. P. 128.
7 Thomas LeClair. Language Must Not Sweat: A Conversation with Toni Morrison. The New Republic, 184 (March 1981). P. 26-27.
8 Toni Morrison. Song ofSolomon. London: Vintage, 1998. P. 322-323.
9 Ibid. P. 4.
10 Ibid. P. 4.
11 Ibid. P. 4.
12 Toni Morrison. Song ofSolomon. London: Vintage, 1998. P. 240.
13 Ibid. P. xxx.
14 Trudier Harris. Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison. Knoxville, The University ofTennessee Press, 1991. P. 85.
15 Toni Morrison. Song ofSolomon. London: Vintage, 1998. P. 125.
16 Ibid. P. 132.
17 Ibid. P. 27-28.
18 Toni Morrison. Song ofSolomon. London: Vintage, 1998. P. 150.
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