Song of Solomon, the epic story of a young man's evolution through discovering his families roots, while at the same time finally discovering his own identity. Macon Dead III, also known as Milkman because he had been nursed well passed the normal age, begins the novel as a teenager with little or no respect or concern for others. Despite being a black man during a time period where that was a difficult thing to be, he had a very different life then that of the norm. He was spoiled as a child and was a member of one of the wealthiest black family's in Mercy, Michigan. He is a young man much like his father, Macon Dead II, driven only by their primary immediate needs, such as money or sexual pleasure.
He is then driven towards a quest of stealing a sack of gold from his aunt, Pilate, with his good friend Guitar. When he discovers that the sack was not filled with gold, rather the bones of his great grandfather, he begins the adventure back to his father's place of birth to settle whether this sack of gold really does exist. On his journey, he does not find the sack of gold, yet on another level he does. On his journey into the past, passing through Danville, Pennsylvania and finally Shalimar, Virginia, Milkman comes to terms with his family's history as well as his own personal responsibilities and questions his life leading up to his journey. In the end he is finally alleviated of all vices, finds a new found respect for the world, most importantly women, rids himself of his fathers expectations and most importantly frees himself of his ego and literally flies away.
"And talking about dark! You think dark is just one color, but it ain't. There're five or six kinds of black. Some silky, some woolly. Some just empty. Some like fingers. And it don't stay still. It moves and changes from one kind of black to another. Saying something is pitch black is like saying something is green.