The world seems to revolve around green slips of paper, gold coins, and vibrant-colored sheets. Their uses seem to be endless, from common-day exchanges to underground gambles. From these multitude of uses, individuals commonly conclude that money can answer any problem that is thrown their way. But does money really do buy happiness?
In The Song of Solomon, this age-old question recurs as materialism consumes the minds of many characters. Certainly, this desire does not influence Guitar and Macon as strongly as it does Gatsby. Yes, Milkman, Guitar, and Macon are eager and greedy to get their hands on the gold in the cave. Yes, Macon does push to expand his real estate business and be ruthless while doing this. Yes, Macon does seem to avoid Pilate because of her filthy, impoverished appearance. However, Jay Gatsby decides to turn around his entire past and make some detrimental and illegal decisions, like bootlegging, to acquire this abundance of wealth. Furthermore, his sudden transformation only spurred from foolishness. To elaborate, the sole reason for the illegal activities and numerous hoops was to mesmerize and win Daisy over with his prosperity.
On the other hand, the characters in The Song of Solomon only grasp onto any chance to get more money for completely different reasons. It is simply unrealistic and almost impossible for blacks to be considered “rich” in comparison to whites during this time period of suppression and oppression. In reality, however, they needed any form of additional money to survive and progress in this prejudiced world. Although Macon does so in a seemingly selfish and heartless manner, he is not absorbed with the idea of materialism enough to make rash and truly harmful decisions to achieve his dream. The same concept applies to other characters like Milkman and Guitar who only dream of an easier lifestyle which they believe can procured with enough money which is shown through Milkman's belief that his "hunger is about to be assuaged" through gold (Morrison 219).
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