Dreaming of Buds and Bulls

  Throughout Toni Morrison's novel, Song of Solomon, there are myriad references to sexism and racism.  Milkman, the black middle-aged protagonist, grows up in the mid 1900s living with his mom and dad, Ruth and Macon Dead, and his two older sisters, Magdalene called Lena, and First Corinthians. One evening Macon Dead slaps Ruth after she makes an allusion to the sexual relationship she had with her own father. As a result, Milkman punches his father. It is after this that two dreams depicting sexist and racist themes are revealed. Milkman meets up with Guitar, his close friend, and relays to him his dream about his mom digging holes in her garden when malicious tulip buds grow out of the ground. The dream ends with her fighting for her life with them wrapped around her. When Guitar asks why he didn't save his mom from the tulip buds in his dream, Milkman says it was because she appeared to be enjoying the torture. I believe this dream has a lot of strong sexism. The strong, "bloody red heads" of the tulip buds that eventually smother her are probably referring to the male sex. In this book their have been plenty examples of males being dominant. For example, when Macon Jr. slaps Ruth, she merely looks down and doesn't say anything. Also, Milkman went on a rant earlier on in the book about how he feels the need to protect his mother. Or when Macon Jr. takes his family out on a car ride and objects everything Ruth says to him. But not only is the dream pointing out the motif of male dominance, it purposefully describes a submissive victim. She is described "hitting them away playfully, mischievously"(105). When they "were smothering her, taking away her breath, she merely smiled and fought them off as if they were harmless butterflies" (105). This reveals the weak-minded submissiveness of women in this novel.
  Following the description of Milkman's dream is the description of the dream Freddie, the family janitor, had. Freddie tells Milkman the story of how he became an orphan. Freddie's dad had died two months before he was born and his mom died during his birth. His mom was walking with a friend when they saw a neighbor on the road who said howdy. The minute she said howdy she turned into a white bull. Then his mom went into labor and after she gave birth she died at the sight of Freddie's new born face. The white bull was the cause of Freddie's birth and his mother's death; illustrating the increase of white supremacy and its' power over blacks. This power also was the reason why Ruth's father, a doctor, wasn't allowed to take any black patients. It was also why Macon Jr. stayed married to Ruth. Though he was suspicious of her having a sexual relationship with her father, he stayed with her in order to present himself as a respectable black person in the eyes of the white community.
Though there were other examples of racism and sexism, these two dreams gave very terse examples.