Toni Morrison is often referred to as one of the Great Black American Authors and is very accomplished in the field of literature. For my class, English 310 with Professor Rosenberg, we are just beginning to read this novel and I thought it would be appropriated to share similarities between Morrison and authors we've read in this class so far.
Morrison uses vivid language and deeply built characters within her novels. But the themes in her novels, particularly "Song Of Solomon" spark my interest. In this novel, the themes are that of flight, segregation, color, class, and also women, who play a vital role in this novel. In the beginning of the novel, we find out that one of the characters so far, Ruth Dead, after an array of events, becomes the first black patient in the hospital in this town and gives birth in the hospital. Ruth is a complex character who feels alone in this world, even though she is married and has many children and the theme of abandoned women first comes out at this point.
As with many women we've looked at thus far in the semester, Morrison is using her stage to write a novel that delivers a message, one that is not fully clear at the beginning of the novel, but will be later. She also uses her identity and background to make for a more rich reading and background around the novel itself. Her identity and background are present at the beginning of the novel and I believe will play a vital role, along with these common themes, throughout this reading.
I am also a student of Mr. Rosenberg's English 310 class. Ruth's feeling of unwantudness in the world transitions very well into this course. Through authors like Lorde, Cisneros, and Wheatly, we know that they all have experienced racism in their upbringings in America. Through their poems, we can see their feelings of emotion about these issues, but it really does not go beyond that. In Morrison, we see many different characters reactions to racism giving us the insight of how African Americans first feel about segregation, then their actions toward it. In the books from English 360, I do not see much action towards wanting to change racism in America. I read them mostly as the authors telling the readers about certain racist situations. In Morrison's "Song of Solomon," we see not only their emotional reactions, but the actual actions that African Americans took when they were experiencing racism.
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