Joyce Irene Middleton, "From Orality to Literacy: Oral Memory in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon," in New Essays on Song of Solomon ed. Valerie Smith, Cambridge University Press 1995, 19-40.

35-36:

Milkman's process of relearning the personal value of his own orality culminates in the final, celebratory scene in this novel. After Pilate's death, Milkman offers words of praise in a scene that draws on the feelings of an oral epic. Milkman rises from his knees, following what Skerrett describes as his "recitation to the griot" (1985, 201), a moment which holds powerful implications for viewing Pilate as a culture bearer. Trinh Minh-Ha notes, "Every griotte who dies, as it is said in Africa, is a whole library that burns down (a 'library in which the archives are not classified but are completely inventoried')" (1987, 5). Milkman's monument to Pilate is in the form of a song rather than in stone, contrasting oral and written forms of cultural inscription and memory.³ Having fulfilled the death ritual, Milkman rises and calls out in the dark for Guitar, his beloved friend driven mad by material greed for gold and by internalized racism.⁴ From the grand height and spectacle of Solomon's Leap, overlooking a dark, lush natural setting, Milkman engages in a symbolic instance of the African American cultural call and response (Smitherman 1977, 104-18) with Nature herself participating and listening to this tale:

"Guitar!" he shouted.

Tar tar tar, said the hills.

"Over here, brother man! Can you see me?" Milkman cupped his mouth with one hand and waved the other over his head. "Here I am!"

Am am am am, said the rocks.

"You want me? Huh? You want my life?"

Life life life life.

[Guitar appears.] As fleet and bright as a lodestar he wheeled toward Guitar and it did not matter which one of them would give up the ghost in the killing arms of his brother. For now he knew what Shalimar [Solomon] knew: If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. (341 )

The acoustic effect of this passage structures the call and response pattern. This oral language style underscores the harmony that Milkman has achieved: he is no longer separate from, no longer isolated from, the life-sustaining knowledge of his past. His allegorical night is inward for we have seen him find self-knowledge, especially the oral nature of his ancient roots, and we have seen him acquire a deep value for life and for human relationships.