"Solomon cut across the sky"- FLYING

In addition to the examples Sheridan brought up, Morrison mentions the idea of flight in the epigraph: "The fathers may soar / And the children may know their names." Morrison brings up the idea of flight before the novel begins, emphasizing the importance of the motif.

While flight is usually discussed with positive connotations in the novel (Milkman dreams of flying, flight is discussed as beautiful), the literal meaning of flight seems to be very negative. Flight is used to describe Mr. Smith's suicide and Milkman's implied suicide at the end of the novel. It is strange to see suicide described in such a beautiful way; it is as if the characters in the novel do not view suicide as negative but instead as a necessary escape.

Flight seems to symbolize escape in the novel. Milkman's great grandfather escape from slavery is described as him flying away from his life as a slave. Returning to the epigraph, "The fathers may soar / And the children may know their names," it seems like stories of flight from the past serve as inspiration for the present, and help people keep hope that they too may fly.

Another interesting aspect of the theme of flight is its surrealistic quality. Characters do not literally grow wings and fly, but because flight symbolizes the escape from oppressive reality, flight is narrated in such a way that it does not reflect reality.

I'd like to combine what Sheridan said with what Steve and Natalie have written, which would take the "it's always been Milkman's dream" concept and just add it to the "flying is escape from reality to some unknown better world." Milkman's dream would then seem to be a lifelong wish to leave his current life (probably in a more metaphorical sense, although this wish seems to manifest itself physically at the very end of the novel with his final jump). It seems, in Morrison's depiction of flying and Milkman's own character, that this combined statement runs strongly through the novel.

At one point, Morrison gives us a solid description of what the actual flight is like. After Milkman confronts Guitar, who accuses him of taking all the gold, Milkman returns to Sweet:

"Milkman slipped into Sweet’s bed and slept the night in her perfect arms. It was a warm dreamy sleep all about flying, about sailing high over the earth. But not with arms stretched out like airplane wings, nor shot forward like Superman in a horizontal dive, but floating, cruising, in the relaxed position of a man lying on a couch reading a newspaper. Part of his flight was over the dark sea, but it didn’t frighten him because he knew he could not fall." (298)

The first thing to note about this quote is the deliberate distinction of Milkman's sort of flying from stereotypical images. This leaves no doubt in the reader's mind about the relaxing nature of this flight, an idyllic nature the passage further emphasizes when it mentions that Milkman knew he could not fall. For me, at least, the supreme tranquility of this image calls to mind archetypes of death. Often, death is described as something peaceful and quiet. Perhaps Milkman cannot fall (though keep in mind that this is only a dream) because the sort of flying he dreams of occurs after he has already fallen, and it is only his spirit that is able to fly.

The idea of needing to give up something of central importance to fly also appears back when Milkman and Guitar are discussing the white Peacock. Milkman asks why the Peacock can't fly well, and Guitar replies, "Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down" (179).

Were one to interpret this literally, "vanity" is something you must give up before you can fly. Looking to the all-encompassing "shit that weighs you down," though, suggests that unless your only weight is vanity—as it is in the case of the peacock—you may need to give up everything that anchors you to this world. Heck, even in the case of the bird, for a peacock to give up it's "tail," "jewelry," and "vanity" it would need to undergo seriously harmful physical pain, if not death. In other forums and in class, we've touched upon how Milkman seems held back by his surroundings and family history. To fly, then, Milkman must renounce—or escape—them all.

Taken alone, I think the idea of Milkman needing to throw off the constraining strings of his situation and family makes sense in the context of the novel. When we combine that with what Sheridan suggests, though, that Milkman has always wanted to fly, things get a little more complex. I don't think it is off base to suggest flying has always been a dream of Milkman's (it's pretty darn clear in the text), but I also don't think the interpretation of flight these quotes imply and Steve and Natalie explain is incorrect. With that in mind, has Milkman, since this very young age, really spent his whole life wishing to escape everything around him?

From what most of the novel focuses on, I think we can say yes pretty easily, but it gets a little murkier when we look at Milkman ages ~2-5. Milkman, or anyone, would seem too young to understand every factor of identity and his past, let alone wish to be completely free of it. At the same time, though, let's recall why he's called Milkman in the first place. In his words, speaking to Ruth, "You nursed me. Until I was…old. Too old" (126). From birth, then, Milkman's involuntary family ties seem overpoweringly and abnormally strong, an idea that fits our picture of flight.

If Morrison suggests that one must give up everything, including life, to fly, I think the question is therefore "Can you escape what you are born into?" and the answer is "You can run from it, but you can only hide in death." Perhaps the better choice, then, is to use what you're born into as a foundation for any change, rather than running from it and trying to start afresh.

SO... my knowledge of this topic is limited. But, I think its pretty obvious that flying is an important motif to this novel. What with the multiple instances of flying at the beginning and throughout the book it seems to me that flying is used as a symbol for escape, rather than just freedom. My thoughts are REALLY scattered right now, so I'm going tot take some time to contemplate this but I really do think that it says something about the characters that they see that as a mode of escape (focus on negative) rather than freedom (focus on positive). Could the central question of the novel be about the ways that perspectives play into our lives, or the ways that people with problems can solve them by omission? I don't even know. But I think this is cool topic and I would love to be in this group!

I find it really interesting that Milkman's life begins with a man's failure to fly and ends in the same way. Even though we know that Milkman fell off Solomon's leap at the end of the story, he believes that he is flying, for if "you surrendered to the air, you could ride it" (337). It seems like an odd reversal that at the age of four, Milkman's childish belief in flying is already crushed by reality: "that only birds and airplanes could fly..." (9), yet at the end of his life he goes back to believing again.This seems to deconstruct the archetype of the fall from innocence by flipping it on its head, giving new light to Milkman’s sacrifice at the end of the story. Instead of a dark suicide, Milkman’s leap represents his fall “into” innocence, his final acceptance of childish belief.

What I think this quote really accomplishes is a summation of this whole "flight" motif present throughout Song of Solomon. Flight is a liberating and surreal experience, but it requires the actor to abandon the responsibilities that keep him or her grounded. If you fly, you are limitless, and you can quite literally transcend any form of oppression, but with that discarded baggage you must also give up everything else that "weighs you down".