Song of Solomon Annotation and Halfway Reading Reflection

What has been most challenging thus far in your reading of Song of Solomon?

    Thus far in my reading of Song of Solomon, the most challenging tasks I have encountered have been trying to piece together the novel’s storyline and the relationships between the characters and trying to understand the significance and symbolism behind the actual events of the story. For example, on page 78 in chapter 3 of Song of Solomon, I struggled to understand what was actually going on in this passage and what the significance of it was. In the middle of page 78, Morrison writes, “The street was even more crowded with people, all going in the direction [Milkman] was coming from … He realized that nobody was walking on the other side of the street.” Initially, I was confused by this passage because I did not know whether to interpret these events as literal or figurative. Moreover, I didn’t fully understand what this passage symbolized at first.

How have you addressed this challenge?

    I have addressed this challenge of figuring out the novel’s storyline and the relationships between characters as well as interpreting the significance and symbolism behind the story’s events by utilizing various reading strategies. To understand the story better, I draw pictures to help me visualize ideas or events, annotate my thoughts and questions in the margins, underline, circle, and bubble different key phrases, and reread paragraphs that I don’t fully understand the first time around. In addition, I like to have my annotation sheet out while I read to help me think about what I should be focusing on while reading. Lastly, I make sure to set aside a large portion of time in a quiet environment to completely focus on reading, annotating, and understanding this novel. By using these methods and strategies, I was able to gain a much better understanding of the passage on page 78, as well as many other challenging passages in Song of Solomon.