Thursday, November 17, 2011
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.
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Good questions--and it's an important aspect of this scene that he's such an unremarkable (or "down to earth") man in his daily life, from his rather mundane name (esp. in contrast to the others in this novel), to his work as an insurance agent. As the narrator says, on behalf of the crowd, this effort to "fly from Mercy" is "the most interesting thing he's ever done." We "rationalize" it by calling it a suicide, but in his own words (his letter) it is indeed an effort to "fly"--which can imply freedom and escape (which *could* also be a way of viewing death--interesting for a life-insurance agent!). You're right, there's a LOT going on in this opening scene. Keep your eye on flight imagery throughout the novel.
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