Coherence of vision in Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon and the Tar Baby Morrison novels, Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon and Tar Baby reveal a unity and coherence in his vision of the human condition. A particular concern is the effect of community on the individual's achievement and maintenance of an integrated and acceptable self. In covering this topic he repeatedly draws on myth and legend for story structure and characters, returning repeatedly to research theory as a motivating and organizing tool. The impact of community on the individual's search for self is one of the particular problems of black women, as well as the laughter and pain that characterize the struggle for survival of black Americans. (Thus Sethe is destroyed by her memories and her isolation with the ghost of Beloved (haunted by slavery), until the community intervenes and saves her.) There are a number of similar themes that pervade the novels: in Song of Solomon, Milkman Dead's spiritual quest is part of a real journey during which he must confront his past and his origins. (Compare with Paul D.'s need to confront his and Sethe's past.) He ultimately experiences a rebirth of self rather than terminal isolation in madness or death (as Sethe reunites with Paul D. and is freed from the horrors of her past.) (Incidentally, Milkman takes his name from the fact that his mother breast-fed him into late childhood, an emotional dependence, indicating the emblematic "milk theft" from which Sethe suffers... and her desire and pride to be able to conserve milk for her children.) See also Therese, in Tar Baby, whose "magic breasts" forever continue to give life-sustaining milk, who actively guides "Son'.