Song Of Solomon

Destructive Love in Song of Solomon

When an emotion is believed to embody all that brings bliss, serenity, effervescence, and even benevolence, although one may believe its encompassing nature to allow for generalizations and existence virtually everywhere, surprisingly, directly outside the area love covers lies the very antithesis of love: hate, which in all its forms, has the potential to bring pain and destruction. Is it not for this very reason, this confusion, that suicide bombings and other acts of violence and devastation are committed...in the name of love? In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the reader experiences this tenuity that is the line separating love and hate in many different forms and on many different levels--to the extent that the line between the two begins to blur and become indistinguishable. Seen through Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's relationship, and Guitar's love for African-Americans, if love causes destruction, that emotion is not true love; in essence, such destructive qualities of "love" only transpire when the illusion of love is discovered and reality characterizes the emotion to be a parasite of love, such as obsession or infatuation, something that resembles love but merely inflicts pain on the lover.

As her "daddy's daughter", there is little doubt that a form of love exists between Ruth Dead and Dr. Foster; however, such love is not truly love because as evidenced by Ruth's subsequent life, the filial relationship better resembles an emotional dependence that Ruth took for granted (67). The great emotional schism within her that is the result of her father's death leaves Ruth dysfunctional: she is unable to emote towards other, especially her family. Instead, she expects her family to treat her with the abundant emotional expressions present in Dr. Foster's treatment, taking their caring spirits for granted as she has done with her father. Morrison includes much intimation to prove that Ruth lacks true love: she is unable to perform basic domestic tasks such as cooking, suggesting that she cannot adequately provide for her family at even the most quintessential level of what woman during that time were expected to provide.

When Macon found Ruth with "[Dr. Foster's] fingers in her mouth," the "love" that Ruth had for Dr. Foster has evidently become destructive as it not only estranges her from Macon and the rest of the family, but also forces her to live an impersonal, emotionless life (73). Although at the onset of the novel, she attempts to rekindle these emotions not through Macon who utterly refuses to please her, but through her own son Milkman, a gross exploitation of filial love: "His mother had been portrayed not as a mother who simply adored her only son, but as an obscene child playing dirty games with whatever male was near--be it her father or her son" (79). It seems, however, that her willingness to emotionally satisfy herself finally comes to an end when Freddie blatantly points out her misjudgment of breastfeeding Milkman who is twelve years old at the time. Thus, instead of looking for emotion, she learns to take comfort in the emotionless, the inanimate such as the goldfish, rhododendron, and other flowers she constantly surrounds herself with. And to simply remind herself that she exists as an animate being because she is unfeeling, "she never set the table or passed through the dining room with out looking at [ the large water mark]" (11). Morrison shows the extent of the destructiveness of Ruth's love when Milkman relays his dream to Guitar: "Finally she noticed them...they were smothering her, taking way her breath...but she didn't seem to guess this at all..." (105). In the end, it would seem that Ruth's "love" masqueraded a selfish emotional desire and these falsities, in the end, destroyed herself as she was "having fun" asphyxiating.

Hagar's relationship with Milkman epitomizes the notion that love kills slowly as Hagar's background and circumstances serve to misrepresent, even adulterate, the true meaning of love. It is evident that both Pilate and Reba created a childhood, a reality that was overly permissive for Hagar as she needed a "chorus of mamas, grandmamas, aunts, cousins, sisters, neighbors, Sunday school teachers, best girl friends, and what all to give her the strength life demanded of her--and the humor with which to live it"--because she was given absolutely everything, she is simply incapable of handling rejection (307). Coupled with her naivetй that those who "love" her would never take away from her posterity, she literally loves Milkman to death: "She loved nothing in the world except this woman's son, wanted him alive more than anybody, but hadn't the least bit of control over the predator that lived inside her. Totally taken over by her anaconda love, she had no self left, no fears, no wants, no intelligence that was her own" (136 - 137). However, these characteristics of her love made her, unable to function without Milkman's love and for that matter, Milkman's existence. In fact, Hagar becomes so desperate for his love that she settles for anything that possesses Milkman, including his fear. On a superficial level, her love becomes destructive here in the sense that she now attempts to take away Milkman's life, "energized by the details of her mission" (127). However, Hagar's love is even more destructive for taking away her own life.

After realizing that she "can't own a human being" as Guitar told her, Hagar's final attempt to win back Milkman's love involves her buying into artificiality after seeing her dysfunctional, comatose self in the mirror (306). Morrison illustrates the human that love has made Hagar become through Hagar's belief that appearance alone will give her Milkman's love. However, in Guitar's analogy, just as the mountain's head can be seen despite the clouds, Hagar's artificial appearance does not serve to cover Hagar's true being. Driven by the white standards of beauty in society, Hagar is merely left with an appearance, devoid of a soul or anything substantial to buttress her fall. Thus, when she is unable to have "silky hair the color of a penny" or "lemon-colored skin," she dies of a broken heart (315 - 316). The ironic fact is that all along she believed that "whiteness" would