Car Rides & Family Dynamics

We discussed this in class a while ago and I typed a really confusing post I decided not publish, I hope this one makes a little bit of sense. But the themes of flight I had discussed prior once again seem to be cropping up as well as some pretty obvious issues within the Dead family.

A lot of these issues come out in their family drive. While reading the passage no one seemed to be particularly happy and the entire family was awkwardly sitting there trying to make idle conversation from time to time.  The longest conversation I can recall would be Macon shouting at Ruth when she reminds him to turn at the upcoming street corner. This family is set apart as distant and emotionally traumatizing by this car ride to me immediately. Making Macon's family although incredibly successful in a traditional sense, a failure in the end.

You see milkman observe shortly after the car ride that Pilate who is related to this big successful man  Macon Dead, is a failure in a traditional sense, but still enjoys herself more than the Dead family. Milkman notices this when he talks to her seeing that she isn't "dirty" . I feel as if this novel isn't particullarly about the upper crust living a void and empty life compared to the scum of society, but it is certainly theme I've begun to see crop up.

The insanity of flight

The Song of Solomon has quite an interesting opening with a suicide occuring as a black woman gives birth at the white hospital. The man who attempts to fly to me is easily the most fascinating part. There is so much symbolism you could interpret from this scene alone. But the one image I couldn't get over was that when I had to describe this man to friends I'd call him insane, the man is attempting to break his bounds to the earth and on a certain level humanity. He's trying to escape yet within the universe of the book his "escape" attempt isn't incredibly preposterous the universe so far has been unrealistic and unpredictable, but we still se him as mad. Is it a humans inherit reaction to try and bring down those who attempt to fly above the rest by dismissing them as mad or insane? Or is it just truly impossible to escape from this planet and your own humanity? Either way I began seeing this mans attempted flight as his dreams crashing down to earth in both a literal and figurative fashion. It will be really interesting to see how important the milkman will be throughout the rest of the book.

Shedding a tear for Mersault

Mersault in the stranger is quite an admirable man in  a sense, he's not tied down by any of the moral conventions we have and he's happy with the point his life is at. Yet we still seem to take pity on this man, especially after his harsh death sentence is dolled out I felt sad for him. His neutrality made me see the true bias of all humanity, especially in a system that's supposed to be as sterile as him like the justice system. Seeing his sterility treated with the death penalty is really disheartening to think that to function as a member of society you not only have to keep to yourself but conform to the standards set by others. Albiet this is offset a bit by Mersault's indifferent reaction to the sentencing, it's hard to pity a man who doesn't pity himself. But again Mersault isn't normal I haven't ever seen anyone in my normal life that has been as truly neutral as him. Meaning on a certain level I understand he has no emotions,  so I am not taking pity not only on his predicament but his emotional involvement he realizes he needs to be more emotionally involved but he cant change himself and this recognition of his so-called flaw. Gives Mersault a little bit of the wounded pit-bull aspect, yes he appears dangerous but he's got no bark condemning such a creature in my eyes is not an acceptable action yet the french justice system is at ease and pleased with themselves for removing Mersualt as a "threat".