In today's rapidly changing world, there seems to be not enough time to read anymore. The society we live in runs at a pace that makes life seem like a broken record: eat, sleep, work/go to school, repeat. Because of this, unfortunately, there is little room for us to stop and think about who we are and the potential we have. What I mean by that is we live in an apathetic society that seems to discourage education and self-worth, and that thought process is ingrained in the superficial ethos of the so-called American Dream.
There is one book that makes me think this way, and it has ultimately become a go-to inspiration for me as I venture into a career of civil rights and politics: Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon." Though I technically read this book for a high school English paper, I nevertheless still found something meaningful in Morrison's eloquent writing.
Every now and then, there comes a book that will profoundly change your life. For some, it's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and for others, it's the Bible. For me, it's "Song of Solomon".
"Song of Solomon" is a novel that I deeply admire for its wonderful ability to be both literal and abstract. Written in the wake of the Black power movement in 1977, Morrison tells the story of an African-American man with no direction in life, who goes on a spiritual journey to reclaim his ancestral past lost in the hardships of slavery. Throughout the novel is a tale of love, a tragedy of loss, and a family name that withstands the tests of time.
Morrison also challenges traditionalist styles of writing, which in turn challenges writers to think. Her pattern of narration is circular, for the novel begins and ends with a black man attempting to fly. The majority of the characters in the novel, even the title of the novel itself, are named after biblical figures, such as Pilate, Ruth, Hagar, among others, yet they ironically act extremely different from their biblical counterparts.
Toni Morrison's work is so complex and intricate that if I were to talk about every single caveat she purposely lays in her novel, then I think my fingers would fall off writing this. But in the end, "Song of Solomon" is a novel that challenges readers to maintain a strong connection to their past in a society that tends to encourage forgetting the past altogether. She writes of the dangers of not doing so, and expresses the joys of the past through the main character of her novel.
Toni Morrison is a work of art, both as a person and as a writer, for her ability to write a work of literature so meticulous in structure, that it conveys a message so vital to remember in today's demanding society: your identity is the most important thing about you and nothing materialistic in the world can change that.
