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

Inclusive Spirituality in vocal of Solomon When slaves were brought to America they were taken from some(prenominal) they had known and forced to live in a land of risque irony that, while 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, legion(predicate) people would rely on their religious belief to help them survive. But would slaves be able to find spiritual comfort within the parameters of a religion that had been passed on to them from the slaveholders? In Toni Morrisons stock of Solomon, African-Americans struggle to find a spiritualty that is responsive to their call for and that encompasses their experiences in a way that the religion of the sovereign culture does not. Song of Solomon deals with the African-American struggle to find a spiritualism not defined by a religion of the dominant culture. From the generator of the novel, Morrison alludes to Christia nity with the puddles she chooses-Hagar, First Corinthians, Magdalene, and Ruth for example. However, the two main allusions Morrison draws on be the name Pilate and the name of the biblical book Song of Solomon. In the biography in which Pilate is named, Pilates father, who cant read, lets the Bible fall open and points to a set of lines that olfactory modality agreeable to him. It just so happens that the word spelled out by those lines is Pilate, the name of the Roman who turns Jesus over to be crucified. The midwife attending at Pilates birth asks the father if he really wants to name the child afterwards the person who killed Jesus, and the father replies, I asked Jesus to save me my wife, and he continues, I asked him all night long (19). Yet his wife wasnt saved, and Pilates father feels... ...sition of meanings shows both majority and minority readers that African-American spiritual experience, while touched by majority experience, does not have to be formed by it. S ong 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 text helps people to examine differing ideas, learn about divergent experiences, and become sensitive to various needs. If we are able to learn something from Song of Solomon, really learn something, perhaps life, liberty and happiness will in the end find us. Works Cited Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views Toni Morrison. New York Chelsea House Publishing, 1990. Middleton, David. Toni Morrisons metaphor Contemporary Criticism. New York Garland, 1997. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York Plume, 1987.