Quest for Cultural Identity: A Study of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon

Abstract

In this research, an attempt has been made to analyze protagonist Milkman’s quest forcultural identity in Toni Morrison’s novelSong of Solomon. At the beginning ofthis novel, the protagonist is selfish and materialistic which causes sense of alienation in him. Therefore, he searches for his individual identity and achieves it only through his own African-American culture. After making a journey to the residence ofhis grandfather, he discovers his real identity as the descendant of Solomon, his grandfather, who is mentioned in the Bible as the twenty first child of Jesus Christ. Such a great discovery guarantees his cultural identity. Thus, his quest for the ancestral history and his discovery of it is the main idea, i.e. thesis of the novel, which has been inquired and explicitly approved in this research work.