Solomon's Song

In chapter thirteen we see Milkman listening to a song the some children are singing. Milkman realizes that the song is about his great grandfather, Solomon, who abandons his wife Ryna is the cotton fields.  The song focuses on the novels main themes of flight and abandonment. There are many paralells between Milkman and Solomon. Solomon left his wife to wither in the hot cotton fields, and Milkman left Hagar to destroy herself and die. Morrison draws on the conditions for blacks during the slavery era where men were ripped away from plantations without notice, destroying families and tearing them apart. Morrison shows that it is not by choice that men leave, but rather forced upon them by their society. Solomon existed during the slavery era and was ripped away from his home a left. Milkman has left to understand his race and find his people. Both left due to pressures from their societies and both reflect the different era's.