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The book Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison was published in 1977 and focuses on the main character “Milkman“ and his family over four generations. The novel deals with a lot of different topics for example the legends of slaves flying off to Africa, the Great Migration, the Civil War and the change of mindset in the United States in the 1960’s. The novel not only explains the history of African Americans in the US, it also focuses on individual experiences of African Americans, the relationship between family members especially between the different gender and the relationship between blacks and between black and white people.

There are various scenes in which the reader realizes that Milkman (the main character) gets treated differently from his two much older sisters. His father also does not treat his mother very well, in fact he ignores her most of the time or if he talks to her he treats her as if she was nothing. He also talks bad things about her to his son so he would think bad about her too. As well as that, he also does not really care about his daughters, he gives them jobs like taking care of his son even though they are too young and it is not their job to do it.

“Did you ever wonder?

Yeah, do you ever wonder

What he might be going through on his own?

And the demons that he's facing alone”

-Kali Uchis - After the storm

On one point during Milkman’s childhood the whole family went on a trip outside of the city. He needed to pee but his father did not allow his mother to go with him. So his sister had to go and Milkman peed on her. This shows the importance of male members of the family. They were always the one’s in charge, Milkman only had to work with his father in the shop but he never had to do any household chores.

On the same trip when Milkman peed on his sister the whole family was talking about rich people living at the nearby lake over the summer. Milkman’s father wanted to go visit a property near the lake because he wanted to buy it and rent it to other black people. The whole family said that they could not believe any black man could afford living at the lake over the summer because that meant they were rich and could afford a summer house. The father replied that maybe no one could yet afford it but that they soon will.

But we've been struggling endless days

Someday we'll find the love

'Cause after the storm's

When the flowers bloom

-Kali Uchis - After the storm

According to the analysis from the Urban Institute in February 2015 in 2013 the average wealth of African-American families was $95,000. The average wealth of white families was $500,000 greater than it was for African-American. In comparison in 1963, average white family wealth was only $117,000 more than African American family wealth. This analysis shows that there has always been a great gap between the wealth of black and white people which continues to grow even more today.

Therefore the scene about Milkman’s family talking about the lake shows that African Americans were always less likely to be in a higher class, to afford having holidays houses at the lake at for example Lake Ontario. Even though Milkman’s father was especially “wealthy“ for black people during those times, he still earned less than a white man would have. Looking at Lake Ontario it reminds us about the reasons why African Americans in general are usually not as well off as white people and that this should be changed.