Marxist Lens: Responding and Reflecting

Song of Solomon

Marxist Lens

This honestly wasn’t a very engaging story as I thought it to be, despite that I did finish the story. I’ve read this sort of plot so many times that it fell on me as a bore. This reminded me of Tuesdays with Morrie, if you’ve ever read it. The character has a late blooming personality and not very social with others, breaking all relationships he had. Along comes Morrie Schwartz, one of his old teachers from high school and takes the protagonist on a spiritual journey to find himself before he passes becauses he is diagnosed with cancer and only has a month to live. Milkman’s situation isn’t as dire and desperate, but he has to break through many social barriers; including the women’s evaluation of him and the still evident presence of discrimination before he finally regains what he thoughtlessly wasted.

Morrison did find a interesting idea in coming up with an apathetic African American who knows nothing but getting gain; inheriting it from his father as indicated in the book. Usually I’ve seen old/rich white men take that spotlight, but this was very taken aback that a rich black man; a most unusual choice for placing apathy upon would display such animosity towards his life and other’s lives. I didn’t understand why Morrison would choose such a character until I looked her up and discovered that she was a black women. I figured that she had the right to pour her soul and relate into this created character since her people have a history being heavily oppressed for many centuries. But when I read about Milkman being indifferent instead of being a humble man that I thought he would, I was disappointed because that’s also what the many black people I met were known for. But tying into the Marxist Lens, it was a flip-the-script idea because it made me imagine what america would’ve been if blacks and people like Milkman were among the higher class and the other majorities in the lower. Moving up the social ladder does change a person because of the many assets that come with it, but it is all decided with their will and personality in the end and how they choose to stay stable.