Circe and Milkman
We learned from class the passing of information from generation to generation is vital in African American literature. The idea of story telling and passing information from person to person is not new. Information has been delivered in this manner for as long as we have known and are often used as a form of story telling and passing down information about family affairs as illustrated in “Songs of Solomon,” genealogy. Information given this way, in a sense, keeps the story “alive” over time. In “Songs of Solomon” the characters Circe and Milkman demonstrates this form of oral exchange. Circe acts as the pathway to his discovery of his family tree; she is the beacon to his past.
Milkman is the character in the story that is on a quest for his identity. Milkman has a difficult time understanding where he came from and he goes through this journey that will be both a physical and spiritual crossing that will allow him to understand and grasp his past. Throughout his journey, Milkman changes from a juvenile, careless boy to a mature, responsible man who appreciates his family history. Milkman encounters Circe, whom he finds out that she knew his father. Milkman asks her to inform him of everything she knows of his father so that he can find out more information on his past. As it turns out, Circe was the midwife who delivered Pilate, his aunt, and Macon, his father, and helped them escape after their father’s, his grandfather’s, murder by the Butlers, the wealthy white family that she worked for. Circe informs Milkman that Macon Dead I’s actual name was Jake, and his wife’s name was Sing, a part-Indian woman. Circe tells Milkman that the deceased owners of the mansion, the Butlers, became wealthy by stealing and slaying underprivileged, independent farmers as his grandfather. She continues on telling him that a month after his burial, his grandfather’s body drifted out of his grave during the first rain and was placed in the cave where...