Ruth's Recognition Of Loneliness

“Her son had never been a person to her, a separate real person. He had always been a passion.” (131)

When reading Toni Morrison’s, Song of Solomon, I have carried the passage restated above with me when analyzing the relationship/encounters between Milkman and Ruth. I find it interesting Ruth internalizes the significance of her son’s life, just at the point in time when Milkman’s ex-girlfriend attempts to kill him from breaking up with her after twelve years. Morrison uses an entire page to carefully weave in the thoughts of Ruth and what he son truly means to her. During this time in the novel, Ruth faces the fact that Milkman indeed has “never been a person to her” because he stands as a physical representation of a larger concept. To Ruth, he represents the last hope that she had to rekindle the relationship between herself and her husband, Macon Dead. Macon, because he had been so clearly mortified by his wife and her odd relationship with her father, can never look at Ruth the same. There fiery relationship that once linked them together had shattered to pieces the moment he saw his wife being more intimate than normal with the Dead doctor. Ultimately luring Macon to have sex with her, Ruth got pregnant with Milkman. Because this was her last attempt to fix this loneliness and brokenness, Milkman stood as “a passion” in hopes that a human creation that both Ruth and Macon made, would inevitably fix all of their problems. Unfortunately and to her dismay Milkman did just the opposite. In fact Morrison even explains how Macon wished to kill Milkman. His attitude both reflects the idea that he wanted to both kill the romance that Ruth had thought existed and to kill the actual human that formed because of there interaction. I believe that Ruth remains close to Milkman because he symbolizes this last hope that she desired. At this moment in time, Ruth needed comfort but in turn she received nothing but loneliness. It is interesting choice that for so many years Milkman is blind to how much his presence has affected his family when he was in her womb. I believe that Ruth nurtures Milkman differently than the rest of the children because he is the last standing human that could have potentially drawn Macon back to Ruth.