The title, Song of Solomon, comes from the Old Testament. It is a book of wise sayings and stories about King Solomon's wisdom. He was the second King of Israel (after David), and was initially a very good king. However, he became very greedy and focused on money, building ornate temples and places. God punished him by destroying his kingdom and all of his temples based on wealth, not faith.
Macon seems to be very similar to King Solomon. He is a very imporant man in his town in North Carolina (particularly in the African American community). He was very rich, and had followed the doctor (his father-in-law) as the richest African American man in town after the doctor's death. He may have been kinder or more generous with his money when he was first starting out (although I rather doubt it based upon what in the past he reflects upon), but he his now entirely consumed by his money and status, even sending Freddie up to get "his money" down from the pocket of a drunk man who tried to kill himself, but passed out before he could. Macon's name is one of the few non-biblical main character names, which is an interesting contrast to the rest of the main characters.
Pilate is Macon's younger sister. She was named at random when her father pointed to a word in the Bible. Pontius Pilate was the Roman Governor of Judea when Jesus was crucified. He is thus hated by many Christians, when he really was stuck in the confines of the laws in that province regarding the powers of the Jewish council and the punnishment that they want for their convicted person. However, for a long time, Pilate was seen as the source of all evil and that he had Jesus crucified because he wanted to not because he had to. Similarly, Pilate in the novel is hated by everyone and is seen by her brother as be source of all evil and something that could ruin his reputation. However, when Milkman goes to see her with Guitar, he finds that she isn't scary or evil, but that she is just represented that way because of what she does (runs a home winery), and the fact that she had a child out of wedlock. She is kind, caring, and leads a contented life that draws even Macon in to observe her happiness from afar.
First Corinthians is one of Macon's two daughters. First Corinthians is a letter from Paul (one of the disciples) to the people of Phillippi. The letter contains advice on how to follow the Christian way of being loving towards others (he includes things like love is patient and that love is the most important thing in life). First Corinthians emulates this principle by always being kind, and not very confrontational (except when she was little). She seems to be the "perfect child" -- doing everything her father wants her to, going to college, smoothing over arguments, etc.
All of these characters resemble qualities of important biblical references that I think will play a large role in events to come in the novel.
In my blog post, I also discussed the allusions of the names and particularly found Cece's analysis of the title of the book intriguing. Macon seems to be eerily similar to Soloman, as they both posses the same exact traits and experience similar journeys to who they eventually evolve into. I think the use of these biblical names in this novel have immense significance, and help us characterize each persona. I entirely agree with Cece's conclusion that these names, although they made seem at first glance unimportant, will play a huge part in the upcoming chapters as we see certain events unfold.
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ReplyDeleteI found CeCe's analysis of the title very interesting. I did not look into the meaning of the title, but from reading CeCe's analysis, I think there are important connections that could be made. I also discussed the importance of names and the allusions to the Bible, specifically Pilate. I think there is great significance to the name "Pilate" because the readers who are familiar with the Bible, will already have an opinion about the personality of Pilate in Song of Solomon. It will be interesting to read the rest of the book and to get to know the characters better.
ReplyDeleteI also mentioned the Biblical references in my blogpost. I found Cece's analysis interesting. It was helpful to understand where the title of the novel originated from. Maybe the events relating to Solomon will play out similarly in the novel. I am interested to learn more about the characters in the novel and find out how events and relationships between characters will unfold as we read.
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