Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon"

Morrison's interweaving of the irreal with the real in Song of Solomon reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's magical realism (One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera) and and also that of Gloria Naylor's Mama Day. Like Mama Day, Pilate is able to manipulate unseen forces in order to enrich others' lives or to punish them. She provides nourishment to her people in the guise of literal food (she always starts a conversation by offering food, usually peaches), pleasurable soul-food (by making wine and whiskey), the sustenance of life and regeneration (providing the lust concoction that leads to Milkman's birth), the sustenance of health (as a natural healer), providing peace (by healing the emotional wounds inflicted by arguments), providing manna as prophetess (announcing Milkman's birth through song, for instance), and protecting her people as punisher of wrongdoing (whipping Hagar because she tries to kill Milkman).

She is the Mother of her nation, a navel-less Eve ensuring the continuity of her bloodline. Pilate is the ultimate Black leader, a nonconformist who is able to balance eccentricities (the irreal) with common sense (the real). Although Milkman is the protagonist of the novel, Pilate's overwhelming presence surpasses his own. She guides him, saves him from prison, teaches him and rebukes him, so that she becomes the hero of the novel. Although her name links her to the shameful killer of the Christ, Pilate's life-giving powers and sacrificial death also connect her to the Resurrection and to immortality.