Morrison on Song of Solomon
I was struck by Morrison’s storytelling in Song of Solomon, and I was very curious to learn more about her and the inspiration behind the novel, with hopes of finding answers to some of the ambiguities in the story. In an interview I found on YouTube, Morrison says she drew inspiration from the rich culture of the African-American community in a northern town. She reflects on her own experiences of growing up within this culture, “The history was in their songs… and the history was in the tales they told…” This theme of folk songs and folklore is a prominent feature of the story; throughout Milkman’s journey, these songs and stories help guide him in his quest for identity. Morrison says that the story was inspired by a myth that had always enchanted her, about slaves who came to the United States that would fly back to Africa. When she looked further into slave narratives that were published in the 1930s, she noticed that the interviewers would almost always ask a