The references to ginger and spices at the chapter's end link Song of Solomon to Song of Songs, in which the male lover likens his beloved's fragrance to that of precious scents, including saffron, cinnamon, frankincense, and myrrh. That the "spice-sweet" smell of ginger is strongest in the Southside neighborhood suggests that Southside residents are more closely connected to their African roots than blacks living closer to white neighborhoods. The phrase "this heavy spice-sweet smell that made you think of the East and striped tents and the sha-sha-sha of leg bracelets" emphasizes a theme that resonates throughout the novel: Black history is world history, which can be traced far beyond the era of slavery in the United States when, for millions of Africans, leg irons replaced their traditional decorative leg bracelets.
To Milkman and Guitar, the spice smell represents "the way freedom smelled, or justice, or luxury, or vengeance." Ironically, these qualities mirror those concepts which Macon thought of in Chapter 7 when he discussed Pilate's gold with Milkman: life, safety, and luxury. All three men idolize the gold in worshipful terms. Morrison writes of the green sack at the end of Chapter 8: "It hung heavy, hung green like the green of Easter eggs left too long in the dye. And like Easter, it promised everything: the Risen Son and the heart's lone desire. . . . Guitar knelt down before it."
