Song of Solomon Chapter 8 - 11
Guitar is lying in his bed thinking of the logistics of killing four white girls in retribution for a church bombing that had killed four black girls the previous week. His plans reach a dead end when he realizes that he hasn’t got the capital to buy any explosives, but then Milkman arrives with the knowledge of Pilate’s gold. Guitar is excited at the prospect and agrees to help Milkman with his plans as they both begin to fantasize about what they would do with the money. They happen to come across a beautiful peacock as they are walking, and are so mesmerized by it that they begin to chase after it. Unable to keep going after the peacock, the two friends halt and discuss the things they will do with the money. Guitar wants to provide for his family, while Milkman doesn’t have any specific plans, but he still wishes to be freed from the burden of his familial responsibilities. Milkman is still a little reluctant to go through with the plan immediately since he believes Pilate and her daughters to be “crazy women” while Guitar believes it will be an easy job. Guitar manages to convince Milkman to go through with the plan that very night, and they break into Pilate’s house. They manage to successfully steal the sack, but Reba watches them unseen and wonders why the robbers would want it.
Corinthians, Milkman’s sister, has gone to a prestigious college and studied a little in France yet she has secretly taken a job as a maid for an old poet laureate. Corinthians is tired of living with her family even at the age of 42 since none of the eligible bachelors have ever proposed to her. She begins to be courted by the older Henry Porter, who happens to be a tenant of Macon Jr. They begin to go out on dates, but Corinthian is embarrassed to be in a relationship with someone as poverty-stricken as Henry Porter. He confronts her about her embarrassment and she admits that her father would never accept him as a potential match for her. She changes her mind just as he drops her home because she realizes that she doesn’t want to end up alone. She returns with him to his apartment and they make love. She returns home the following day and overhears Milkman arguing with his father about the events of the previous night.
Milkman and Guitar had been stopped by policemen as they had been returning with the green sack, and Milkman expresses his surprise at being stopped by the police for no apparent reason besides his race. The police had gone through the green sack and discovered some rocks along with the skeleton of the man. Macon Jr and Pilate had both been brought to the police, and it had been Pilate’s pleading attitude with the police that had saved both Milkman and Guitar. She had explained to the police that the skeleton belonged to a man she had loved, but Pilate had adopted a different attitude when Macon Jr had been taking them all back from the police. She had told him that the bones were those of the man he had killed in the cave since she couldn’t have left a body unattended and that she had never taken any of the gold from the cave. Macon Jr tells Milkman that the gold must be in the cave and they should make arrangements to have it recovered. Later, Milkman looks in the mirror and experiences shame for betraying Pilate’s trust, and he notices that both of his legs have grown to the same length. He also realizes that Guitar is capable of killing a person since he had sensed a darkness in him that he hadn’t suspected before. He goes to visit Guitar but sees the members of Seven Days outside his house. The group includes Henry Porter.
Macon worries about his sister’s involvement with a violent extremist like Henry and shares the knowledge of their relationship with his father. Macon Jr forbids Corinthians from seeing Henry and evicts him from his property. Lena, Milkman’s other sister, confronts Milkman about causing an end to Corinthians's relationship as she admonishes him for being just as repressive as their father. Milkman attempts to explain himself but Lena continues to berate him as she reminds him that he had once urinated on her in his childhood, and she believes that is all he does now too. He just ruins the lives of the women in his household without ever doing anything productive himself.
Milkman sets out to search for the gold as per his father’s wishes, and he informs Guitar of his intent to search for it on his own. This makes Guitar suspicious as he begins to think that Milkman intends to keep it all for himself, even though Milkman assures him that he would share the gold evenly with Guitar as well. He takes a plane to Pittsburgh followed by a bus to Danville where he encounters Reverend Cooper. Cooper had been around the time of his grandfather, and he informs Milkman about his father’s history. Macon Dead, Milkman’s grandfather, had been an exemplary farmer in the region, who had become a cornerstone of the black community with his success. Macon Dead was betrayed by an ill-reputed yet wealthy family of landowners called the Butlers, who also employed Circe, Pilate, and Macon Jr’s midwife. The Butler family had murdered Macon to steal his land, but their fortune did not last long since the family soon fell to ruin. It was believed then that the midwife Circe had also died after witnessing the ruin of the family.
Reverend Cooper makes arrangements for Milkman to visit the crumbling ruin of the Butler’s house, but it takes a few days which Milkman spends talking to the people. The inhabitants of the town were very fond of Macon Dead, and they express jubilation upon hearing of Macon Jr’s success in Michigan. Milkman is taken to the Butler's old house by a young relative of Reverend Cooper. Milkman is surprised to find an ancient woman living in the hovel who appears to him surrounded by golden-eyed dogs. The woman turns out to be Circe, and she mistakes Milkman to be his father, Macon Jr. She tells Milkman that she had helped in the birthing of nearly everyone in town, except for his grandmother, Sing. Sing Dead had found her husband on a wagon of ex-slaves, and they had settled in the town after moving from some town in the north called Charlemagne. She reveals that Sing had been fond of her surname ‘Dead’ and had encouraged her husband to keep it. Pilate had once visited Circe after the birth of her baby, Reba, and Macon Dead’s bones had been washed from the grave to the same cave where his children had hidden upon escaping from the Butler house. Circe gives him the directions to the cave and explains that she continues to live in Butler’s house because she hated them. She wishes to ensure that their whole house succumbs to ruin and rot until her final days. She also reveals that Milkman’s grandfather had been called Jake.
Milkman makes his way to the cave with nothing but the thoughts of gold on his mind but finds the cave devoid of it. He reasons that Pilate had taken the gold along with the bones of the white man, but he is surprised that she had not taken the bones of her father. He decides to retrace her steps, as he heads back to town. He heads to the freight yard in search of Reverend Cooper and helps a man with a heavy load. Milkman stays in the town for a little while, but he soon buys a car and heads out in search of the town called Charlemagne. His new car breaks down in a northern town in front of Solomon’s General store, where Milkman learns the town of the name to be Shalimar. The store owner claims to have a message from Milkman’s friend, which had been “Your day is here.” Milkman understands that the message was from Guitar who was probably looking for him. He ignores the fact that the message is a part of Guitar’s Seven days ritual process, and ends up fighting some men outside the store. Milkman defends himself against a knife with a broken soda and impresses some of the middle-aged men who happen to be present. They invite Milkman for a hunting trip and equip him with the right kind of gear which is more appropriate than his suit.
Milkman understands that the men may be trying to test him with the hunting trip but he is determined to prove himself. Milkman begins to think about his life as he trudges through the dark forest with the hunting party in groups of two. He understands that this is among the first times in his life when he is nearly completely devoid of his family’s influence. He thinks about all the people who have wanted to harm him, including his father and his friend Guitar. Milkman begins to understand that the people of the world have a sense beyond the common five and that this sixth sense allowed them to communicate with other living things through sound rather than language. He notes that the hunters make use of it among themselves, and with their dogs, but this sense in him has been stunted. He tries to awaken himself to it just as he feels someone trying to creep on him from behind. Guitar appears from the back and attempts to choke Milkman with a wire as he whispers “Your day is here,” in Milkman’s ear. Milkman quickly fires two shots in the air which attract the attention of the other hunters and Guitar is forced to run away.
The hunters kill a bobcat and make fun of Milkman for firing wildly, unaware of the attempt on his life. Milkman doesn’t share the incident with anyone, but he watches them skin the bobcat as he thinks about his place in the world. Milkman realizes that many actors want the lives of black men, but that the solution to their struggle lies in love. He has breakfast with the group and tells them that his grandparents had come from the region. He asks them whether they had ever heard of a native American woman called Sing, and one of the women claims to know of a Sing from the Byrd family. She also tells him that a member of the family lived nearby. Milkman visits a prostitute called Sweet, who makes love to him, makes food for him, and nurses his wounds. Milkman treats her with affection and departs to search for his mother’s relatives.
Analysis
Abandoned women are the subject of another major theme that Toni Morrison explores through the course of the novel, and she does so through the characters of almost all the female characters including Reba, Hagar, Pilate, and Ruth. Pilate is a pivotal character in the novel, whose behavior and attitude influence Milkman greatly, in fact, she initiates the moral transformation that Milkman undergoes in this section. Milkman experiences shame after the incident with the police as he has to confront Pilate when she is armed with the knowledge of his theft and betrayal but instead of being angry with him, Pilate humbles herself in front of the policemen to rescue him from the punishment of his crime. It is also interesting to observe that Milkman’s deformity with his legs disappears immediately after he has begun to experience remorse which further indicates the transformation that he is undergoing.
This section of the novel is composed like a Bildungsroman as the reader witnesses Milkman peel back the layers of his personality as he attempts to understand his identity. The journey that Milkman takes in these chapters is ostensibly meant to find the gold, but we soon realize that he is searching for himself. Literary critics have compared these chapters to Homer’s Odyssey due to the similarities it bears, and the character of Circe is another such similarity. In the odyssey, Circe is a magical woman who turns men into beasts and back again, and the Circe from this section of the book helps turn Milkman into a compassionate being from a selfish and neatly individual.
Song of Solomon also involves the thematic exploration of the relationship between the dead and the living. This section of the book heavily features Macon Dead, as the townspeople treat Milkman with significant favor when they learn that he is descended from Macon Dead. Additionally, this section features Milkman’s deadly encounter with the suddenly hostile guitar. A careful analysis of the language used in the section reveals that Milkman actually dies, and is reborn nearly instantly. This concept of rebirth is further reinforced by the changes that Milkman displays after the encounter. He suddenly finds it possible to laugh at his haywire gunshots with the rest of the hunting party, he examines his life as the hunters' skin the bobcat as he concludes that love is the key to a good life, and finally he treats Sweet with reciprocal love which was something he had never done with Hagar.
