Toni Morrison is famous for her ability of weaving reality and myth in her literary creation. Analysis from the perspec-tive of myth and archetypal criticism found that her third novel, Song of Solomon, depicts African myth of flying and the arche-type of hero's initiation. In the novel, Morrison not only employs the myth of flying as her structuring device, but also treats it as the symbol of Afro-Americans physical and spiritual freedom. In the frame of searching flying ancestors, Morrison portrays how the protagonist, Milkman, experiences the archetypal hero's initiation phrases: separation, transformation and return. In the nov-el, by employing the myth of flying and the archetype of hero's initiation, Morrison implies that in order to get spiritual freedom, Afro-Americans must return to tradition and find their cultural root.
展开▼