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In contrast to the economic interpretation of “flight,” Morrison suggests a more internal, spiritual meaning for the word. One can fly by involving oneself in one’s community and one’s friends; paradoxically, devotion to others yields more freedom, not less. Pilate devotes herself to Milkman and her daughter and granddaughter; Milkman later thinks that she can fly without leaving the ground, as if her love and sympathy give her a kind of independence that her brother, obsessed with his businesses, will never achieve. Whether Milkman achieves this second kind of flight is unclear. At the end of the novel, he seems to “fly” at Guitar, but we don’t know if he’ll kill his old friend or greet him with love. If we choose to believe that Milkman will do the former, we’re subscribing the old principle of “an eye for an eye” – this would be a failed flight, by Pilate’s definition. If, however, Milkman learns to overcome hatred and the desire for revenge – in essence, a kind of payment – then perhaps he’s moved beyond financial concerns and achieved the flight that’s eluded him all his life.
The Earring Quotes in Song of Solomon
The Song of Solomon quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Earring. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2, Chapter 10
Quotes
He loosened his collar and lit another cigarette. Here in this dim room he sat with the woman who had helped deliver his father and Pilate; who had risked her job, her life, maybe, to hide them both after their father was killed, emptied their slop jars, brought them food at night and pans of water to wash. Had even sneaked off to the village to have the girl Pilate’s name and snuffbox made into an earring. Then healed the ear when it got infected. And after all these years was thrilled to see what she believed was one of them. Healer, deliverer, in another world she would have been the head nurse at Mercy. Instead she tended Weimaraners and had just one selfish wish: that when she died somebody would find her before the dogs ate her.
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The Earring Symbol Timeline in Song of Solomon
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Earring appears in Song of Solomon. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 1
...grew older, she tore out her name from the Bible and made it into an earring.
(full context)
Part 1, Chapter 3
...wonders what his grandfather’s real name was, and guesses that Pilate has it in her earring. He condemns his grandfather for accepting the name the Freedman’s Bureau accidentally gave him, and...
(full context)
Part 1, Chapter 7
...both of them, who works in a white family’s mansion. While there, Pilate makes an earring for herself; but shortly after she pierces her ear, she and Macon leave, since they’re...
(full context)
Part 2, Chapter 10
...his son. Cooper asks Milkman about Pilate, and recalls that his own father made Pilate’s earring.
(full context)
Part 2, Chapter 15
...wants to put a rock or a cross on the grave, but Pilate removes her earring and buries it on Jake’s remains. As she is finishing doing this, a gunshot rings...
(full context)
