Essay on Spirituality in Song of Solomon -- Song Solomon essays

Inclusive spiritualty in numbers of Solomon When slaves were brought to America they were taken from all they had known and obligate to live in a land of dark irony that, darn promising life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, provided them with only misery. In a situation such as the one in which the slaves found themselves, many people would assert on their religion to help them survive. But would slaves be able to recover spiritual comfort within the parameters of a religion that had been passed on to them from the slaveholders? In Toni Morrisons Song of Solomon, African-Americans struggle to run across a spirituality that is responsive to their ask and that encompasses their experiences in a way that the religion of the dominant culture does not. Song of Solomon deals with the African-American struggle to find a spirituality not defined by a religion of the dominant culture. From the beginning of the novel, Morrison alludes to Christianity with the fall upons she ch ooses-Hagar, setoff Corinthians, Magdalene, and Ruth for example. However, the two main allusions Morrison draws on are the name Pilate and the name of the biblical book Song of Solomon. In the narrative in which Pilate is named, Pilates set out, who cant read, lets the discussion fall open and points to a set of lines that look agreeable to him. It tho so happens that the word spelled out by those lines is Pilate, the name of the Roman who turns the Nazarene over to be crucified. The midwife attending at Pilates birth asks the mother if he really wants to name the child after the person who killed Jesus, and the father replies, I asked Jesus to save me my wife, and he continues, I asked him all nighttime long (19). Yet his wife wasnt saved, and Pilates father feels... ...sition of meanings shows both majority and nonage readers that African-American spiritual experience, while touched by majority experience, does not have to be formed by it. Song of Solomon deals with the struggle of African-Americans to find a spiritual avenue that is responsive to their needs and reflective of their experience. The schoolbook helps people to examine differing ideas, direct about different experiences, and become sensible to various needs. If we are able to learn something from Song of Solomon, really learn something, perhaps life, liberty and happiness will finally find us. workings Cited Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views Toni Morrison. rude(a) York Chelsea House Publishing, 1990. Middleton, David. Toni Morrisons Fiction Contemporary Criticism. New York Garland, 1997. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York Plume, 1987.