Searching for Identity in the Song of Songs Abstract: Whether Africans actually fly or simply escape a monumental burden, perhaps only through death, is a decision that Toni Morrison has apparently left it to his readers. However, whatever you believe, within the Song of Songs, the suggestion is that to "fly" you must return to the beginning, to your roots. You have to learn the "art" from old messages.O Sugarman flew awaySugarman went awaySugarman crossed the skySugarman went home... (6)1Milkman was born to fly. Maybe not! Perhaps he was simply condemned to a life on the run. Toni Morrison apparently gives her readers a choice. Milkman was born under a paradoxical cloud. His life seems to be doomed to controversy. Toni Morrison ultimately leaves the reader with a “choose your own ending” setup. As in Beloved, Morrison's unique style of ending a novel without finalization only enhances the content and tickles the imagination. Evidence of Zora Neale Hurston's influence is scattered liberally throughout the story. In addition to folklore and mythology, the Song of Songs is also full of cold, hard facts of reality. Did Milkman actually fly or was he simply a man, constantly trying to escape reality? Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon was partly inspired by All God's Chillun Had Wings (Andrews et al 103). According to this popular tale, all Africans could once fly. Due to transgressions, they lost the ability to fly. Sometimes, someone would shake off the weight of their burdens and be able to fly. Only a select few retained remnants of the memory of the flight. According to a Hurston legend, the transgression,... in the center of the paper... converges in the distance. Soon they begin to intertwine and twist together. At the center is a solid rope, with each strand intertwined neatly with the others to form a tightly woven story. With its many parts, but only one beginning, Song of Songs is absolutely the "perfect soft-boiled egg" (40). Works Cited Andrews, William L., et al. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature.New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1997. 103Barnhart, C. L., et al. The American College Dictionary. New York: Random House, 1970. 919Heinze, Denise. The dilemma of "double consciousness": the novels of Toni Morrison. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1993. 14Hurston, Zora Neale. Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings. Ed. Cheryl A. Wall. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. 315, 581, 597, 618Morrison, Toni. Song of Songs. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.