Explain Magical Realism in song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon incorporates spiritual, mythical, and legendary elements into her otherwise realist narrative. This narrative is centered around the Yoruba folktale of the Africans who escaped slavery by flying; in fact, this what the title alludes to as those mourning sing the song. It alludes to the ballad about the flight of Milkman's ancestor, Solomon, who leaps from a high rock in order to return to Africa. However, he left behind a...

Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon incorporates spiritual, mythical, and legendary elements into her otherwise realist narrative. This narrative is centered around the Yoruba folktale of the Africans who escaped slavery by flying; in fact, this what the title alludes to as those mourning sing the song. It alludes to the ballad about the flight of Milkman's ancestor, Solomon, who leaps from a high rock in order to return to Africa. However, he left behind a grieving wife and twenty-one children.

Here are some elements of magical realism in Song of Solomon:

• The bereaved sing this song of loss, this ballad of the flight into oblivion of Solomon, who leaped from a high outcropping of rock to return to his native Africa, leaving a grief-stricken wife and twenty-one children. 


• Pilate births herself by crawling out of her mother's womb, leaving her with no navel. She has a knowledge of magical potions, one of which she gives to Ruth Dead, which moves her husband who wants nothing to do with her to give her a son, Milkman.


• Milkman finally discovers the secret of the song of his ancestor, so he travels to learn the origin of his name and to reunite with his people. 

The feathers may soar
And the children may know their names.

• Milkman sings the song of loss when Pilate dies, and like Solomon, his ancestor, he leaps--even soaring in the air--to his confrontation with Guitar, left ambiguous as to its outcome. This ending is what Miguel Angel Asturias called "an annulment of reality."