The African American Dream in Song of Songs Like most Americans, African Americans have developed variations of the American Dream. Many African Americans find that their dream differs from the traditional American dream in that it does not involve immediate success. Sometimes the dream is equality through freedom or literacy, while other times it is a simple desire to know oneself through historical connection. In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Milkman was literate and had many options for further education if he wanted it. Milkman was apathetic towards education and work. In fact, he wasn't sure what he wanted out of life. Initially, he thought the best thing for his life was to leave his family and home. To do this he needed money. His father, Macon, gives him the task of searching for a bag full of gold in his hometown in Virginia. Macon fought Pilate over a particular bag of gold as children, and Macon believes that the gold remains in the original location as it was when they were young. Milkman wishes to locate gold as a means to achieve his goal of achieving financial independence. During this search, Milkman discovers his true dream, to discover "who he really is" and his family heritage. Milkman's version of the African-American dream is to uncover the past, a past that has been hidden and lost due to slavery and post-abolition renaming. Where his grandfather and father choose to leave the past behind, Milkman chooses to retrace his steps. Through Macon, Milkman was fed numerous variations of the story. Pilate, his aunt, continues largely the same distortion. He is not sure about history and reality. Listening to his father's story, we read of Milkman's feelings: "In the depths... in the middle of the paper... of his dream. Without immediate success, as happens in the traditional American dream, Milkman tried to work toward the goal with patience and determination. Once he acquired the dream or a part of that dream, he turned around and gave back to his people, his family and his friends, in an effort to help those around him Milkman story describes the quest for the African American dream of equality, and in this, exercising its inalienable rights. WORKS CITED De Arman, Charles "Milkman as the Archetypal Hero." New York: The Penguin Group, 1977.Peterson, Nancy J. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.Rice, Herbert Toni Morrison and the American Tradition: A Rhetorical Reading. New York: P. Lang, 1996.