When I began reading Song of Solomon, I expected it to be a coming of age story similar to Huckleberry Finn. This impression was wrong on many levels. First of all, the symbolism of the beginning of the story, which involved a man flying, and the ending of the story, which was about how Milkman found spiritual freedom and learned about his family’s past. The symbolism embedded in the story made Song of Solomon have an entirely different quality than the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, due to Huck and Jim’s characterization being based around their straightforward and helpless qualities.
The second reason my impression of Song of Solomon was wrong was the genre of the overall story. Initially presenting itself as a look into the difference between the black and white cultures of the era, towards the hundred page mark the story became a coming of age story for a Milkman, who was already in his thirties. Then, the story had a final genre shift to one of mystery, as Milkman pursues his roots and finds himself. Morrison, the author of Song of Solomon does an admirable job of making all of these genre shifts form a cohesive and understandable whole, with characters making mistakes and assumptions based on their perspective on the world and their internal beliefs.
The characterization of the entire Dead family, as well as the other prominent characters such as Guitar, are what makes Song of Solomon into a classic. Throughout the book, Characters make mistakes based on their flaws and the way they see the world. Perhaps this shines through most of all in the antagonists, Guitar and Hagar, as they fail to understand what Milkman is doing, seeing only the betrayal of his actions. This is what the book is truly about- if you do not know yourself, you cannot change.
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