Mothers in Song of Solomon

Mothers in Song of Solomon

In the Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison sets up an in depth look at the mother-child relationships for many of the characters. When reading it is easy to make connections about how the mothers treated their children and how they turned out. Ruth turned Milkman into a man who fears commitment. Pilate turned Reba into a woman who craves male love. And Reba spoiled her daughter Hagar, which lead her to think she was the center of the universe.

The way Ruth raised her son had profound consequences. She breast fed him until he was much too old. The exact age is never stated, so the reader gets to use his or her imagination, but he is clearly past the acceptable age limit because when _____ see’s the sight he immediately spreads the word and as an outcome Macon is given his new name, Milkman. Ruth has her motives of course; being deprived of sexual activity by her husband when she was still a young woman led her to crave any male intimacy she could find, though one could not expect a child to embrace or even comprehend the scenario. Since Milkman was, in his mind, betrayed by the one woman that was supposed to love him unconditionally at such an early age, he never latched onto women. Even at the age of 30 he could not settle down with Hagar, who was madly in love with him.

Pilate was a good mother, but she neglected to incorporate a male figure into her daughter, Reba’s, life. Pilate could never stay with a man very long because there were always issues concerning her lack of naval. She left the man who she conceived Reba with even though he wanted to get married. Since Reba never had a male figure in her life she felt very deprived and craved it by the time she was an adult. This caused her to be over anxious