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The past lives and breathes around us. It acts as the anchor for each and every text on this padlet. In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, the past holds answers for the protagonist Milkman and his primary motivation becomes uncovering it. This newfound connection with the past serves as Milkman's lifeline, and it is crucial for his own understanding of his community and family. Coates, Baldwin, Gay, Morrison, Hurston, and many more authors highlight the everlasting effects of the past on the modern-day. Through their works, we are reminded to not forget the past, as it is essential to understanding how Black individuals have endured despite systematic segregation and slavery.

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“‘You can't own a human being. You can't lose what you don't own. Suppose you did own him. Could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? Do you really want somebody like that? Somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door? You don't, do you? And neither does he. You're turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can't value you more than you value yourself’” (Morrison, 306).

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“She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it's there, because it can't hurt, and because what difference does it make?” (Morrison, 91).

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“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it” (Morrison, 337).

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“Now he knew why he loved her so. Without ever leaving the ground, she could fly. ‘There must be another one like you,’ he whispered to her. ‘There’s got to be at least one more woman like you’” (Morrison, 337).

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“Listen, baby, people do funny things. Specially us. The cards are stacked against us and just trying to stay in the game, stay alive and in the game, makes us do funny things. Things we can't help. Things that make us hurt one another. We don't even know why. But look here, don't carry it inside and don't give it to nobody else. Try to understand it, but if you can't, just forget it and keep yourself strong, man” (87-88).

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“Their names. Names they got from yearnings, gestures, flaws, events, mistakes, weaknesses. Names that bore witness” (Morrison, 330).

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“But I can’t forget—where I’ve been. I don’t mean just the physical place I’ve been, I mean where I’ve been. And what I’ve been.” (Baldwin, 144)

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“Freedom lurked around us and I understood at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did” (Baldwin, 148).

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“You got to hold on to your brother,” she said., “and don’t let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you gets with him.” (Baldwin, 133)

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“For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard.” (Baldwin, 147)

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"Turn into a dark stairwell and your body can be destroyed. The destroyers will rarely be held accountable. Mostly they will receive pensions” (Coates, 3).

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“More what I mean, or wonder, is how the American fascination with our destruction—insidious, subtle, repetitive, mirrored, invisible—stitches itself into our imaginations. How does it determine what we might create? What we might dream.” -Ross Gay

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“But she sat a long time with the walls creeping in on her. Four walls squeezing her breath out.” (Hurston, 84)

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"we are feeding each other

from a tree

at the corner of Christian and 9th

strangers maybe

never again."

–Ross Gay

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Liberation, freedom, and escapism all play significant roles in Song of Solomon. To encapsulate these ideas, Morrison uses flight. This was derived from the African American folktale of Black people escaping slavery through flight. For Milkman, flight serves as a way for him to escape from his current reality filled with emptiness and stagnancy, but in doing so he creates chaos due to his indifference and ignorance to those around him. As Milkman grows closer to Pilate, he simultaneously grows more and more alike her. Ultimately, he realizes that the flight he has been searching for is right in front of him, represented by Pilate, yet she is totally grounded. There is also a duality found within flight, as for one it may be escape, for another it may be abandonment. Flight coincides with liberation, and both ideas represent transcendence, both internally and externally.

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Names are essential parts of one's identity passed throughout generations, and they serve as a pathway between past, future, and present. Yet, in Song of Solomon Milkman's family name is a mistake; a byproduct of a drunk worker at the Freedmen's Bureau who misheard Milkman's grandfather. Throughout Song of Solomon ideas surrounding names and naming constantly appear: like Milkman's own nickname which has a disturbing origin, or the Dead's tradition of picking names from the Bible. Milkman's aunt, Pilate, chooses to wear her name in a box as an earring. This acts as a reminder of her personal history, but is also a tangible reminder of her outlandishness and rejection of patriarchal norms. Pilate also lacks a navel, which turns men away from her as they view her as less sexually desirable; however this feature also acts as a symbol of her lack of a traceable lineage and history. The systematic enslavement of Black people attempted to erase their names and history, and Milkman's journey to find his name underscores the shared resilience of losing one's name. Names are our link to our very own DNA, and they also serve as a reminder of our own humanity that connects us to one another.

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Milkman Dead's father, Macon Dead, possesses a looming presence over all those in the fictional town of Mercy, Michigan. In the confines of his own home he becomes a godly presence who dictates the lives of his wife, Ruth, and their two daughters Lena and Corinthians to an extreme degree. Conversely, his sister Pilate's household consists of strictly women: her, Reba, and Hagar. Pilate lives on the edges of society, separate from patriarchal oppression, and as a result she is shunned from her town and ostracized from society. In Song of Solomon, the women protagonists often find themselves trapped in some way as a result of strict gender roles, whether that be in marriages, social niches, relationships, or simply acts of survival. Furthermore, Milkman and Macon Dead both rely on the illusion of domination over women in their lives to sustain a part of their masculinity. Milkman treats Hagar like a doll-an inanimate object to be tossed around-while Macon physically and emotionally abuses Ruth to climb to the top as a businessman. Despite these confines, the women in Song of Solomon subvert their role in the patriarchy due to their unshakable agency and amplified voices, partially due to Pilate's own role in society. For example, as Milkman turns more and more into his father, his sister Lena confronts him in a striking show of her newfound autonomy.

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The despicable practices of American slavery left immense challenges for the newly freed individuals. These barriers were systematically implemented for generations to come. In Song of Solomon, economic, social, and gender disparities emerge in the wake of these contexts. Macon Dead is a prime example of this, as he turns on his community to make a profit, becoming shrewd and a greedy businessman as a way for him to separate himself from other Black people. Additionally, Milkman's friendship with Guitar wanes as he learns of Guitar's involvement in the Seven Days Society, which acts as Guitar's way to serve justice as the government fails to respond to violence against Black people. Despite decades of violence and segregation, slavery's impacts are still echoed in the modern day through systematic police brutality and government inaction.

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Amy Sherald | If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it, 2019

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The Yellow Wallpaper - Lucy Dillamore Illustration