Destructive Love in Toni Morrison's Song of SolomonWhen one believes that an emotion embodies all that brings bliss, serenity, effervescence, and even benevolence, although one may believe that its all-encompassing nature allows for generalizations and existence virtually everywhere, surprisingly, directly outside the area covered by love lies the true antithesis of love: hate, which in all its forms, has the potential to bring pain and destruction. Isn't it precisely for this reason, for this confusion, that suicide bombings and other acts of violence and devastation are committed... in the name of love? In Toni Morrison's Song of Songs, the reader experiences this tenuousness that is the line that separates love and hate in many different forms and on many different levels, to the extent that the line between the two begins to blur and become indistinguishable. Seen through Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's relationship, and Guitar's love for African Americans, if love causes destruction, that emotion is not true love; in essence, such destructive qualities of "love" only shine through when the illusion of love is exposed and reality characterizes the emotion as a parasite of love, like obsession or infatuation, something resembling love but simply inflicts pain on the lover. her "daddy's girl", there is no doubt that a form of love exists between Ruth Dead and Doctor Foster; however, such love is not truly love because, as evidenced by Ruth's later life, the filial relationship is more like an emotional dependence that Ruth took for granted (67). The great emotional schism within her that is the result of her father's death leaves Ruth dysfunctional: she is unable to feel towards others, especially her family. Instead......middle of paper......Sunday man. Instead it became its cause, and the person behind that cause was lost. In Song of Solomon, through many different types of love - Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's romantic love, and Guitar's love for his race - Toni Morrison demonstrates not only the readiness with which love will transform into a devastating and destructive force, but also the immediacy with which it will do so. Morrison addresses the amorphous and resilient human emotion of love not to glorify the joyful feelings it can provoke, but to warn readers of love's unstable nature. At the same time, however, it gives the reader a clear sense of what love is not. Morrison explicitly states that true love is not destructive. In essence, it illustrates that if "love" is destructive, it is most likely a mutation of love, something impure, because love is everything that is pure and true..