Chapter one of Song of Solomon

How is the reader meant to interpret the many symbols?
What is the significance of the biblical names?
What is the symbolic significance of the velvet roses?
Given her name, is Pilate Dead a positive or negative force in the story?
What, exactly, is the setting of this story?

"Downtown the firemen pulled on their greatcoats, but when they arrived at Mercy, Mr. Smith had seen the rose petals, heard the music and leapt into the air." (9)

This passage is significant because it incorporates all of the main symbols in the story thus far into one scene. The rose petals, the music and flight are all incorporated. Not to mention the ulterior symbology in the passage: firemen, who, like the petals, are red, and "Mercy" used as a noun, as opposed to "Mercy Hospital" or "the hospital."

"Mr. Smith's blue silk wings must have left their mark, because when the little boy discovered, at four, the same thing Mr. Smith had learned earlier – that only birds and airplanes could fly – he lost all interest in himself. To have to live without that single gift saddened him and left his imagination so bereft that he appeared dull even to the women who did not hate his mother." (9)

It's important because this passage identifies the major conflict in the story – Milkman's attempts to learn how to fly.

"Mrs. Bains let her hand fall to her side. 'A nigger in business is a terrible thing to see. A terrible, terrible thing to see.' The boys looked at each other and back at their grandmother. Their lips were parted as though they had heard something important." (23)

This passage is significant because the author tells us it's significant: "...as though they had heard something important." The passage also alludes to what seems to be a major theme in the book, and that is the amalgamation of the black man into white society.

"Surrendering to the sound, Macon moved closer. He wanted no conversation, no witness, only to listen and perhaps to see the three of them, the source of that music that made him think of fields and wild turkey and calico." (29)

This passage is fascinating because up until this point, Macon has only been portrayed as cold, heartless and hateful. Here, we see his softer side. He has been particularly hateful toward his family, especially Pilate, his sister. But here, we see another side of him, a side that seems to be drawn to the "common-street"-ness that Pilate represents.

"As Macon felt himself softening under the weight of memory and music, the song died down. The air was quiet and yet Macon Dead could not leave. He liked looking at them freely this way. They didn't move. They simply stopped singing and Reba went on paring her toenails, Hagar threaded and un-threaded her hair, and Pilate swayed like a willow over her stirring."

As a continuation of the previous passage, in this passage we see a very different picture of Macon Dead. No longer the cold money-collecter, he now seems to be filled with childlike wonder at the sight of this domestic scene of peculiar blissfulness.

The central idea developed in this passage is the cursed Dead family line, and the various members of the family, each of whom has their own special ailment. The central character thus far is Macon Dead, and we get conflicting impressions of him. He seems to the be the classic fish out of water, a black man in white society who has become cold and heartless because of it. At the end of the chapter, he invisibly observes a snatch of his ancestral culture in the home of Pilate, Hagar and Reba, where "progress means walking a little bit farther up the road." Chapter 1 kicks off the tale with a fairy tale of sorts – Mr. Smith going splat on the concrete – which in itself is a subversion of another, older folk tale – one told by slaves in which the people really could fly, instead of just hitting the ground and dying. After the tale of Mr. Smith, we are brought in a little closer, into the world of Southside and the Dead family. We are introduced to Macon Dead, who, on the face of it, is the archetypal tyrannical patriarch. However, the contradictions in his character are revealed at the end of the chapter when he eavesdrops on his sister's home. Here it is revealed that Macon Dead's cold exterior may really be just a mask forced upon him by society, a mask that conceals his ties to a rich and flavorful culture.