Song of Solomon Inspired Dog Names

Throughout the history of literature, dogs have often been used as a symbol of a variety of different traits, concepts and themes, representing everything from love and loyalty to the wild, animalistic side of nearly all living beings. In Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison uses them several different ways, each with its own powerful impact on both the surface and in the subtext. 

One of the first times readers encounter dogs is when Milkman embarks the second part of his journey over to Danville, Pennsylvania, when he is in search of the gold he is convinced remains in a cave near his grandfather’s old house. When he finally discovers it, he also finds Circe, an ex-servant of the rich, white Butler family (and the local midwife who helped bring Milkman’s father and aunt into the world). At a great age which remains unknown to both Milkman and the reader, Circe remains holed up in the former Dead house with a pack of half-wild dogs, outlasting the greedy Butler family who murdered Milkman’s grandfather in an effort to take his land. 

The dogs, which were once-great hunting dogs and valued members of the Butler family when fully domesticated, now show their wild ways in the remnants of their former home and stand as a symbolic representation of several important themes, including the deterioration of the Butler’s ethics, Circe’s (and an overarching idea of) greater connectedness to a simpler life, as well as then ensuing destruction that takes places without direction, which is displayed as much in the dogs as it is in Milkman’s life. In turn, Circe revels in the dogs’ dismantling of a former house of power, control and greed. 

But the wild dogs aren’t the only instance Morrison uses them either. Later in the story, when Milkman heads to Shalimar, Virginia, he is invited by the town elders to join them for a hunt. Although he’s nowhere near qualified to join, he does so anyway, learning much about his new acquaintances through their technique, including how they command and communicate with their dogs in an effort to surround and corner the bobcat they are hunting. In the process, readers are reminded of this theme, of hunting and being hunted, as they soon discover that Milkman himself, like many previous times in the story, is being hunted himself, this time by Guitar Bains, who narrowly strangles him by a tree. Milkman does escape, but not without a reminder that no matter where he goes, whether it’s himself or his family, there is a pervasive feeling of being pursued, most often in a threatening manner.