History Literature / SongOfSolomon

* ExcrementStatement: One of the Seven Days members urinates on the women surrounding him while Macon Dead tries to talk him down from a suicide.

* DoomedNewClothes: Hagar buys new clothes and makeup in order to impress Milkman Dead, but since she was in such a hurry to get home and try out the stuff, she has to deal with the rain and her bags tearing on her way there. By the time she does get home and put all that stuff on, Pilate and Reba see that her new clothes suffered major damage, to say nothing about her smeary makeup and wet hair. This leads to her death from a fever that she never recovered from.

* MockGuffin: Milkman Dead hits his head on a sack hanging on the ceiling within Pilate's house, which he tells his father. His father then assumes that it must be the gold that he and Pilate found in the cave that Pilate wouldn't let her brother get his hands on, that she actually went back when they separated and took the gold for herself. Milkman Dead and his friend Guitar Bains then break into Pilate's house in the middle of the night to steal the bag, only to later find out that all it contained was the bones of a man that Pilate and her brother had killed in the cave.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Even if Milkman considers "Macon" to be an EmbarrassingFirstName, it's hard to deny that the surname "Dead" is pretty {{badass}}. In a [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction]], though, Milkman and his father resent the name because it was given to them without their consent (see NaturalizedName).

Bored with this uneventful life, Milkman wants change. He wants to get out and make his own way in life, the only person he needs being his best friend Guitar. Yet even they begin to grow a part, a wedge being pushed between them, and Milkman sets off on a journey to find the lost gold his aunt had supposedly hid, the history of his family, and eventually, the Song of Solomon.

* MamaBear: You either learn to stay the hell away from Hagar when Pilate's nearby, or you'll find yourself choked by the throat with a knife lodged inches from your heart.

''Song of Solomon'' is a 1977 novel written by ToniMorrison.

* FamilyThemeNaming: The Dead family have Biblical-themed names: Milkman Dead's sisters are Magdalene (called Lena) and First Corinthians, his mother is Ruth, his aunt is Pilate (after Pontius Pilate), and his cousin is Hagar (Abraham's maidservant). And of course, there's Solomon, the ancestor of the Dead family.

* SiblingYinYang: Pilate and Macon. One is an eccentric ex-bootlegger who's widely suspected of being a witch, the other is an uptight wealthy businessman in a loveless marriage.

* BellyButtonless: Pilate Dead, the sister of the second Macon Dead, is said to be born without a belly button, as she crawled out of her mother's womb after she died in the throes of childbirth.

* BellyButtonless: Pilate Dead, the sister of the second Macon Dead, is said to be born without a belly button.

* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler: The book ends with an unarmed Milkman running to confront Guitar, just after Guitar has shot and killed Hagar from a distance. In her narration, Morrison makes it clear that it doesn't matter which of them dies in the confrontation, as Milkman has fully come to terms with his mortality in the course of his journey to the South.]]

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: The story begins with a man named Robert Smith on the roof of the hospital, falling to his death as he attempts to fly with a suit he has created. One of the women in the crowd of onlookers goes into labor, and the next day gives birth to the protagonist, Milkman, becomes the first black child born in that same hospital. He then grows up and learns to fly himself. Sort of/maybe.

Bored with this uneventful life, Milkman wants change. He wants to get out and make his own way in life, the only person he needs being his best friend Guitar. Yet even they begin to grow a part, a wedge being pushed between them, and Milkman sets off on a journey to find the lost gold his aunt had hid, the history of his family, and eventually, the Song of Solomon.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: After Milkman and Guitar complain to Railroad Tommy about being denied a beer by the proprietor of their neighborhood's local gin joint, Tommy busts out with [[TheLongList an epic rant about all of the finer pleasures in life that, as Black men in the 1960's, they'll never get to experience.]] Just as he's finished, and Milkman and Guitar are turning to leave, he finishes with, "And ''no'' baked Alaska! None! You never going to have that!" Guitar, who's stayed nonplussed through the whole rant, finally cries out in horror, [[SarcasmMode "No baked Alaska? You breaking my heart!"]]

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: After Milkman and Guitar complain to Railroad Tommy about being denied a beer by the proprietor of their neighborhood's local gin joint, Tommy busts out [[TheLongList an epic rant about all of finer pleasures in life that, as Black men in the 1960's, they'll never get to experience.]] Just as he's finished, and Milkman and Guitar are turning to leave, he finishes with, "And ''no'' baked Alaska! None! You never going to have that!" Guitar, who's stayed nonplussed through the whole rant, finally cries out in horror, [[SarcasmMode "No baked Alaska? You breaking my heart!"]]

* FamilyThemeNaming: The Dead family have Biblical-themed names: Milkman Dead's sisters are Magdalene (called Lena) and First Corinthians, his aunt is Pilate (after Pontius Pilate), and his cousin is Hagar (Abraham's maidservant). And of course, there's Solomon, the ancestor of the Dead family.

* DoomedNewClothes: Hagar buys new clothes and makeup in order to impress Milkman Dead, but since she was in such a hurry to get home and try out the stuff, she has to deal with the rain and her bags tearing on her way there. By the time she does get home and put all that stuff on, Pilate and Reba see that her new clothes suffered major damage, to say nothing about her smeary makeup and wet hair.