Tradition and innovation: Toni Morrison and the flight motif in Afro American literature

Toni Morrison in Song of Solomon recaptures the neglected Afro-American myth of flying Africans. After her novel, the most recurring motif in Afro-American literature, flight, can no longer be seen in the same light. Morrison "enters" the literary tradition using the predominant images and themes of flight that were in Richard Wright's Native Son and Ralph Ellison's "Flying Home"; she then examines, manipulates and revises or transforms these images and themes. Morrison also explores the meaning of flight through the culturally specific metaphors she creates for her people. Through invoking the flying African myth, Morrison recaptures Afro-American folklore and history and shapes her novel in an African-centered worldview. Three novels expressly suggest a Morrison influence as they recapture history through myth; David Bradley's The Chaneysville Incident (1981), Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow, (1983) and Richard Perry's Montgomery's Children (1984). The comparison of these novels to Song of Solomon, the focus of one chapter, points to Morrison as a literary influence for several Black writers. One of Morrison's most significant innovations in Song of Solomon is her depiction of the flying African as woman. The images of flying women which appear in Song of Solomon are developed in her earlier works and are strikingly similar to images in The Bridge of Beyond (1974) and Between Two Worlds (1981), novels by the Guadeloupean writer, Simone Schwarz-Bart. The discussion of similarities in female flight imagery of Morrison and Schwarz-Bart supports the notion of hidden connections among writers of the Diaspora. Toni Morrison in Song of Solomon through image, metaphor and myth move the Afro-American literary tradition forward in terms of its flight motif.