Essay on Personal Freedom Song of Solomon -- Song Solomon essays

Search for Personal Freedom Song of Solomon Personal license is the ability to ignore societal and familial influences to find the true sense of self. Individuals are truly liberated when they are physically, mentally, and spiritually free. The search for person-to-person license is exemplified in Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. The main protagonist, Milkman fulfills personal freedom through attainment of knowledge, by confronting his family, and by overcoming the prejudices of society. Knowledge is a indigenous factor in the attainment of personal freedom. This includes not only critical education but also awareness of historical heritage and familial legacy. The fact that African-Americans were held in human bondage cannot be forgotten it has to be remembered and passed on through rememory. Moreover, literacy gives minority cultures a voice to reach break to others with encouragement and hope. Milkman has a high school education which he took for granted. For Milkman to achieve personal freedom, he needs to search for his ancestral roots. Milkmans father, macon Dead, Jr., denies Milkman his rememories because Macon assumes that achieving the American Dream means erasing his past. However, as stated above, Morrison believes Milkman has to remember he has to know his past in order to know his self. His father taught him that Athe whiz important thing youll ever need to know Own things. And permit the things you own own other things. Then youll own yourself and other community too (Morrison 55). Macon falsely leads Milkman to believe that Youll be free. Money is freedom Macon. The only real freedom there is (163). Milkman buys into his fathers fallacy as he too frantically searches for the gold that will s... ... personal freedom is not an easy one, but we must persevere. Milkmans realization of his personal freedom came as his life ended. We must all remember the old Chinese saw The longest journey begins with a single step. WORKS CITED Ca rmean, Karen, Toni Morrisons solid ground of Fiction, Troy The Whitston Publishing Company, 1993. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. mod York Plume, Peach, Norman. Modern Novelists Toni Morrison. Ed. Norman Page. New York St. Martins Press, 1995. Storhoff, Gary. Anaconda Love Parental Enmeshment in Toni Morrisons Song of Solomon. Style 31 No. 2 (Summer 1997). 290-309. September 18, 2001 <http.//p26688.cl.uh.edu2071/cgi-bin/web>. Willbern, David. Reading After Freud. Ed. G. Douglas Atkins and Laura Morrow. Contemporary Literary Theory. Amherst University of mummy Press, 1989. 158-179.