The Theme Of Violence In Song Of Solomon By Toni Morrison

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is, at its core, a call to awareness for pressing social injustices, as well as a criticism on how various communities combat those injustices. Through the use of clever symbolism and equivocal character names, Morrison explores central themes of societal and emotional neglect, the needs of minority groups, and violence as a means of resistance. The characters of Hagar and Guitar are both representative of those themes. Though their justifications and actions may differ, both Hagar and Guitar show how abandonment, and the corrupting influence of greed, lead to the false notion that violence is a solution to injustice. The feeling of abandonment plays a pivotal role in the novel. It’s so crucial that Morrison named Hagar in relation to it. Like so many characters in Song of Solomon, Hagar’s name comes directly from biblical passages. In the Book of Genesis, Hagar is the second wife of Abraham, given to him by his wife, Sarah, whom is unable to bear a child. Hagar gives birth to Abraham’s son Ishmael. When Sarah later bears her own son, Isaac, she banishes Hagar and Ishmael into the desert, where they are able to survive due to the aid of God. The story of Hagar is a one of how survival is possible in the most unlikely circumstances. …show more content…
Her emotional abandonment by Milkman didn’t spare her yearning for him, but served to intensely nurture it. Morrison describes this overwhelming need for his love as “more affliction than affection” (141). Her insatiable longing, as with Guitar’s greed, drove her to violent means. It came to a point where “any contact with him at all was better than none…she could not get his love, so she settled for his fear” (142). The corrupting influence of greed drove her to the point where the only way she saw fit to free herself from her desire, was to kill the person she wanted most. As a result, she attempted to kill Milkman on six separate occasions