We always feel its duality, -- one American, one Black: two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled efforts; two warring ideals in a single dark body, whose tenacious strength alone keeps it from being torn apart. The history of the American Negro is the history of this conflict – of this desire to achieve conscious manhood, to merge one's double self into a better and truer self. In this merger, he wants none of his elders to be lost... He simply wants to allow a man to be both black and American. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essay - WEB Du Bois, The Souls of Black FolkThis quote from Du Bois describes what he called "double consciousness" , which is the idea that black people must understand their own American identity by simultaneously perceiving themselves in two distinct ways: first, as black people, with their own cultural and historical traditions, and second, in the way white people would perceive them . Having to experience life through a divided identity produces unique tensions and challenges that must be overcome in order for a black member functioning within a larger, more dominant white society to construct their own self-concept. In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the main male character, Milkman, must come to understand his family's historical and cultural past in order to truly understand himself. However, Milkman is not the only one who must learn to deal with a sense of double consciousness: all the main black characters are related to each other and are part of the same cultural community. By highlighting the struggles and oppression faced by African Americans trying to understand their own identity in relation to the broader white society, Song of Solomon can function as a noir narrative. In this essay I will explore the use of double consciousness as well as other elements used by Morrison to allow this book to function as a piece of black literature containing a distinctive historical and cultural story of the black experience in America . representative of black literature because many of its themes, motifs and symbols emphasize the journey of integration of blacks into white society in America. Morrison's book creates "an honest assessment of the past and present [and] defines both an individual and collective memory that [takes] into account their rights as American citizens and their unique experience as a race of people sharing a history of oppression” (Kirschke 20). This journey from oppression and division to freedom and unity is a story and experience unique to the black racial community and is characterized in Song of Solomon, thus allowing the novel to function as a piece of black literature . The presentation of black characters in this book serves as a representation of the black experience in America by illustrating a sense of double consciousness. Morrison's main characters are all black and the whites only act on the margins of the story as instigators of violence responsible for the deaths of Guitar's father and Milkman's grandfather, the murder of Emmett Till and the Birmingham church bombing. Because these events occur outside of the main narrative framework of the story, it becomes apparent that the entire story is focused on a black perspective representing the entire black racial community. Additionally, placing white violence at the edge of the black narrative creates a contrast between white and black racial communities, highlighting social tension andhistory between these communities. Race then becomes a dominant theme throughout the novel, as the characters in the story, especially Milkman, must create an identity capable of expressing who they truly are as a black community. The black characters are particularly representative of the black experience in America in the way they are depicted as having double consciousness; they are not necessarily aware of this double consciousness, but the reader is nevertheless able to recognize it. For example, when the characters Ruth Dead and Pilate are first introduced, obvious contrasts are created by the way they are dressed: "The singer [Pilate], standing at the back of the crowd, was also poorly dressed as the doctor's daughter. well dressed” (Morrison 5). These differences create a gap in the social status of two women of the same race, demonstrating a theme of inequality. This inequality is capable of generating significant division within the black racial community, allowing it to mirror many of the traditional divisions between whites and blacks. One interpretation of the contrasts and divisions found in the novel suggests that the Macon Dead house may serve as a symbol expressing a certain degree of whiteness, or even that the family may serve as a symbol of whiteness due to Macon's obsession Dead for control, oppression and material wealth. Pilate, on the other hand, can be seen as a symbol of blackness or blackness, as she is the character often depicted singing traditional African American songs; Additionally, his house emphasizes the dynamic of a close-knit family, with three generations living together in the same house. Macon Dead and his sister, Pilate, are obvious foils for each other. This is especially evident when Macon explains to Milkman, “Pilate cannot teach you one thing that you can use in this world. Maybe the next one, but not this one. Let me tell you right now the one important thing you'll ever need to know: owning things. (Morrison 55). These lines show the disparity between the worldview of two siblings raised in identical circumstances. Macon believes that it is undesirable for his son to imitate his sister's values ​​and lifestyle; therefore, Macon attempts to distance Milkman from his own black race. This alienation has already occurred in Macon's life, as evidenced by his statement about the importance of owning things. Macon's obsession with property shows that he has adopted white cultural norms into his identity and moved away from his own historical connection to the black community (Terry 100). The characters of Milkman and Guitar are also capable of commenting on darkness. community. These two characters serve as mutual foils, with contrasting worldviews that highlight the historical divisions and social tensions that traditionally exist between white and black racial communities. Milkman's worldview, much like his father's, symbolizes whiteness in his inability to interact with his community and his ambivalence toward his own racial identity. Guitar, however, is able to understand her own black racial identity, driving her so far as to join the Seven Days terrorist group because he is unable to understand its relationship with the white community. The setting and landscape found in Song of Solomon is able to function as a metaphor to tell the story of Black Americans and their cultural and historical past. Morrison's use of setting and landscape to comment on a dark past is evident in the very first sentence of the book, which states: "The North Carolina mutual life insurance agent promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at three in the morning. clock” (Morrison 3). Using a North Carolina mutual life insurance agent and his flight from the top of Mercy Hospital in Michigan, the setting of this book is able to blend aspects of the North (Michigan) and the South (North Carolina), just like the black characters in the book are also linked to the North and the South. The idea that Mr. Smith plans to fly to Canada is significant in light of Black history, as Canada represented a place of escape from slavery found primarily in the South. Another example of mixing North and South appears when discussing mail addressed to Doctor Street: "Later, when other blacks settled there and the postal service became a popular means of transferring messages between them, envelopes from Louisiana, Virginia, Alabama, and Georgia began arriving addressed to people at house numbers on Doctor Street” (Morrison 4). Here, letters sent to Michigan can serve as a material link to the South, where many blacks originally emigrated from and where most of their stories are rooted (Terry 97). Context also plays a major role in establishing the differences between Macon Dead and its sister Pilate and how the communities they live in represent the North and South even though they both live in the same city. Those who visited the Macon Dead house “often envied the doctor's large, dark twelve-room house and the green sedan” (Morrison 9). Macon Dead is a self-made man whose lucrative real estate investments allow his family to enjoy an upper-middle-class lifestyle in an affluent neighborhood. This contrasts with the poor, rundown setting where her sister lives in Southside, a predominantly black neighborhood. Pilate's house is described as a "narrow, one-story house" that "had no electricity" (Morrison 27). The marked differences between these two contexts seem to metaphorically imply the cultural differences between the North and the South, with Macon Dead symbolizing the North and Pilate signifying the South (Terry 100). Other elements that qualify Song of Solomon as a work of black literature are the basic elements of black culture evident throughout the novel: for example, the music, the escape motif, and the use of traditional family structures . Music has a long history in African tradition, dating back to songs that told the story of a tribe. This idea seems to have spread throughout American history during the era of slavery, when slaves sang songs to embrace their racial identity and past. Singing was also used as a literal spoken word remedy for slaves, who sang of what they desired above all else: freedom (Visvis 19). This singing tradition therefore has great historical and cultural significance for the black community. In Song of Solomon, Pilate often sings the song “Sugarman,” which demonstrates the motive of flight, which in turn holds historical and cultural significance for the black community. During the era of slavery, black people often created myths using the motif of flight as a means to escape slavery (Lee 64). The fact that Pilate sings a song about flight shows the importance of the myth and motif of flight to the black community. The theme of escape is also one of the major themes of the book, as Milkman leaves the North in search of his true identity. Throughout the book, the motif of family life is also seen as being important in conditioning the characters on the 2010.