Creative Writing on Toni Morrison’s Novel Song of Salomon Chapter 1 Pages 41-44
A Fairy tale: “A Brown Piece of Paper”. Once upon a time there lived a man whose name was Macon Dead. He was a very unusual man for he named all his children, except for the first-born male, by thumbing at random in the Bible. His wife died giving birth to their daughter and a poor man was confused and devastated by his loss. But a girl needed a name. So broken-hearted father took a Bible, and, as he could not read, chose a group of letters that seemed to him strong and handsome: he imagined that it was something big, something like a tree, which majestically dominates the row of smaller trees. He copied all the letters on a piece of brown paper, copied as all illiterate people rewrite: every curve, slope, curl, - and gave it to the midwife. The brown paper said: “Pilate”.
The midwife was very surprised to see such a name. She asked a man: “Why do you want to call your daughter like that?” A man responded: “I can’t read. Could you read it for me?” The midwife explained to Macon that Pilate was a man, who killed Jesus, and this name is not appropriate for a baby. “This name belongs to a Devil and it will bring Evil to this world!” and with these words she tried to destroy the piece of brown paper. A man prevented the burning of his daughter’s name and claimed: “This name belongs to the Bible and it will stay in the Bible!”
Pilate grew up a fine girl. A piece of brown paper stayed in the Bible until the girl was twelve years old, and then she rolled up the piece of brown paper into a tiny little ball and put it in a little brass box, which she worn in the left ear as earring.
A newspaper article: “Name: an Interesting Detail or a Ruined Life” Women’s eNews paper. Recently, in an effort to stand out from the rest of the world, many parents try to give their child an unusual name. But sometimes, parents go too far. This story is about one particular father who gave his daughter a name which you can hardly ever hear at the playground.
The man has several children and has a habit to name them after biblical characters. What is so unusual, you would ask. Which of us haven’t met Adams, Daniels, Hannahs or Noahs? Nevertheless I can assure you that this biblical name is rather rare.
“I was broken-hearted because of my wife’s death, my thoughts were confused but my heart knew what I had to do: I opened the Bible and thumbed a name “Pilate”- explains a man.
We questioned a midwife who delivered a baby and she said that it was quite a shock for her: “I tried to talk the father of a baby out of naming the girl after a Jesus’s killer but he didn’t listen to any reasons!”
So was it just a great desire to differ from everyone else or a desperate cry of loving man over a loss of his beloved wife? Be that as it may, be aware: Pilate is now among us.
A: Have you heard? Deads have had another baby.
B: Really? That’s great news!
A: No so great, actually. I’ve heard a mother didn’t make it.
B: Oh, no. that’s terrible! Poor thing. And Macon must be devastated!
A: Yeah, he is confused and melancholy over her death.
B: And what about the baby?
A: The baby is doing just fine. But you know Macon, he has a strange habit of naming his kids after biblical characters by thumbing through the Bible.
B: Yeah, I know, a man can’t read a word and picks a group of letters that seem strong and handsome. What did he chose this time?
A: Oh, this time he has outdone himself. He pointed to Pilate in the Bible and was unflinching about his decision. They say, a midwife tried to convince him to change his mind, tried to explain that it was a Christ-killing name, but nooo, it had to be Pilate.
B: Poor baby-boy! You can’t get much worse than that for a name!
A: You’ve missed the best part of the story, it is not a baby-boy, it’s a baby-girl!
B: How can Macon want to give this motherless girl the name of the man that killed
Jesus?!
A: Well, he says, that he asked Jesus to save his wife and he took her anyway.
B: I hope they’ll be alright. But with such a name who knows
Series of Tweets.
A mother of a fine baby-girl died in childbirth today. Let’s pray for her. (Midwife @midwife)
Illiterate people shouldn’t just thumb through the Bible and point at random to a word and then call a baby this way. (Midwife @midwife)
@MaconDead, you can’ just call your baby with a Christ-killing name Pilate. Just can’t. Especially a girl. So mad that you can’t read. (Midwife @midwife)
This name should have gone back where it came from. Right in the Devil’s
Flames. (Midwife @midwife)
I tried to destroy the paper with a name, I tried to convince the grieving man, I did everything I could. What were you thinking? (Midwife @midwife)
Pilate, I hope you’ll forgive your father for this burden he loaded on you. May God prosper you! (Midwife @midwife)
I chose the scene form first chapter where Macon Dead names his daughter Pilate. I find this episode a significant detail in creating the unique atmosphere of the novel as a whole.
At first, I wanted to write a diary entry and the series of tweets from the perspective of Macon Dead, but I thought that the fact that this particular character can’t read would make it difficult to explain his selection of names.
The fairy tale perspective shows the scene as a positive story about a wise man and his strong persuasion that the name Pilate is a predestinated by God name for his daughter. I find that this perspective shows the disagreement of religious beliefs of a father and a midwife. In my opinion it closely conveys the scene content. A newspaper article perspective shows a modern reaction of the society to such an unusual situation. I think that the society wouldn’t be compassioned or understanding to the situation and would react sarcastically. The dialog between members of the community represents the hypocrisy and malicious joy towards someone else’s loss and misfortune. The series of tweets, in my mind, transmit the possible reaction of a midwife if she happened to exist in a world of modern technologies.
I my opinion, the appearance of Pilate's character include the supernatural in to the novel. Her unusual name Pilate got because of the tradition of the family to call their children by randomly selecting names from the Bible. Thanks to this each character of the Deads turns the novel structure into an original thread, which refers the reader to the various myths; imbues the novel with biblical symbolism through the prism of the African-American consciousness, which is essential for understanding author’s intention as a whole. Intertextuality as an integral part of the work of Toni Morrison is manifested in numerous biblical allusions that enrich the psychological portraits of the characters of the novel by the expression of their identity or contrast to some biblical characters.
