Otten: The Crime of Innocence in The Fiction of Toni Morrison

ESSAY #2 Otten: The Crime of Innocence in the Fiction of Toni Morrison

Continuities of Community

Valerie Smiths critical essay Song of Solomon: Continuities of Community focuses on Milkmans successful search for personal independence against communal and cultural barriers. Moreover it looks at how Morrison’s two preceding novels may have “established a framework” (Page 274) for Milkman and his quest for identity.

The first section of the essay deals with the novels, The Bluest Eye and Sula, which were written before Songs of Solomon. The Blue Eyes centers its story on a girl named Pecola Breedlove. Pecola longs to have blue eyes and goes insane once she realizes that this physical characteristic is unattainable. Smith insists that what drove Pecola to insanity were not merely the unattainable blue eyes she pursued, but the fact that she “served as the communal scapegoat.” (Page 274) The novel doesn’t answer these questions as to why the neighborhood projects their hardships onto Pecola or why she wants physical attributes that are impossible. It merely gives indication that these things happen and they are to be accepted without explanation or reason. Smith does not agree that the novel avoids the questions of “why” and diverts them towards the answer of “how”. She believes that the novel tells the story of what it is to have goals and dreams that will never be obtainable due to a cultural barrier.

Like the protagonist of The Blue Eyes, Sula, in the novel titled after her, Sula, attempts a life and identity that is deemed beyond her gender and cultural means. Sula’s attempt a distinguishing herself from her community makes her an easy target for them to blame their burdens upon. Also like the novel The Blue Eyes, “Morrison denies the feasibility of such a choice” (Page 278) and takes the life of Sula before her true identity can be obtained.

Songs of Solomon is the only book where the main character, Milkman, is allowed to fully pursue his individuality and emerge with a true self identity.

The novel is based around