| Tony Morrison, the 1993 Nobel Prize winner for literature, is the first Black American writer so honored in the history of literature. Morrison's particular identity, being a black woman, contributes to various commentaries on her works from different perspectives. In her writings, Morrison bears witness to American cultural heritage, the cultural root of Black Americans. As a Black American woman writer, she breaks the silence on black culture, a civilization that exists underneath the dominant culture.Song of Solomon is the third novel of Toni Morrison, which won the National Book Critic Circle Award. As the sole novel about a male hero among her seven novels published up to now, Song of Solomon is generally acknowledged to be Morrison's masterpiece.Song of Solomon, as a work in search of cultural identity, reveals Morrison's idea of what is the heritage of African culture to Black Americans living in a modern society, and what values it affirms and rejects. The novel illustrates the importance of African Americans' awareness and acceptance of their history and their cultural past, for only with the knowledge of where they have been can they know where they are going.Narrating the course of a black boy's growing up in the novel, Morrison shows her great concern for the racialist reality in American society, emphasizes the importance of black people's thinking highly of their African culture. She also puts forward a new ideology of reconstructing black people's history and revitalizing African culture.In Song of Solomon, Morrison weaves in a great number of Greek myths, legends, biblical stories and a lot of folklore of black people. She employs the means of symbolism to give the theme prominence and to praise and spread African tradition and culture. By analyzing the myths, legends, biblical stories, folklore and the meanings of the symbols, we can have a better insight into African traditional culture and the deep connotation and great essence of the novel.
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