Transformation from No to Yes

Linked from Essay III, Section 13: "The No he says to life brings to light, as if by magic, an abundance of tender Yeses"

'Over here, brother man! Can you see me?' Milkman cupped his mouth with one hand and waved the other over his head.

'Here I am!'

Am am am am, said the rocks.

'You want me? Huh? You want my life?'

Life life life life."

From Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon. NY: Plume, 1987, p. 337.

Reader's Questions

• The final scene of Morrison's novel gains power from Milkman's realization that if "you surrendered to the air, you could ride it." How does Milkman's change in the last part of the novel constitute a "tender yes" to life, in Nietzsche's terms? What events in Milkman's life support it? The events of others in his family?
• How does Guitar say "no" in similar circumstances?

RETURN TO ESSAY THREE