Storytelling is a way of communication, a way of relating the past to future generations of listeners. Storytelling plays an important role in Toni Morrison’s novel, Song of Solomon, in that the protagonist, Milkman, is told a variety of stories by many of the characters. Each story influences him and gives him a different or additional view of his family’s history, ultimately molding him into a person willing to give up the restrictions …showed first 75 words of 883 total…

…showed last 75 words of 883 total…gold, however, Milkman discovers his people, the Macon Dead that inspired boys to be better farmers and the Solomon who flew away and left twenty-one children and a heartbroken wife. He finally knows who he is and where his family came from. This allows him to have pride in his family—pride he could not find in the conniving Macon and pitiable Ruth—which leads him to the freedom Solomon found in riding the air.