Character Analysis Of Milkman In Song Of Solomon
Understanding Milkman
In many stories we see women as moral guides to the main character. In Cinderella she had a fairy godmother, Lewis and Clark had Sacajawea, and every President has a first lady. Women have the important role of showing us the true potential of a person and truly show us who they are. In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison the main character Macon “Milkman” Dead III tries to find out who he is throughout the book. Three important female influences in his life are Ruth, Hagar, and Pilate. Ruth is his mother who breastfed him until he was 5 years old, but has rocky relations with Milkman, Hagar is his cousin who he falls in love with and has a romantic relationship with for 14 years, and Pilate is his the sister of his father Macon Dead II who tries to give Milkman knowledge on his life
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From Ruth, Hagar, and Pilate we learn that Milkman has no respect for women, does not care for women, and feels that everything revolves around himself. Throughout the story there are many examples of Milkman being disrespectful to women, not caring for women, and thinking only for himself. In my essay I will give examples that explain what we learn about Milkman.
The first thing that we can learn about Milkman from Ruth, Hagar, and Pilate is that Milkman is disrespectful. A good example of Milkman disrespecting someone is with his mother, Ruth. In the book it says “When his father told him about Ruth, he joined him in despising her (120).” We see Milkman disrespected his other mother because of his father’s influence. It is disrespectful because Ruth spends all her life taking care of Milkman and he returns the favor by “despising” her. Looking at Hagar we can very clearly that Milkman is disrespectful. An example of the disrespect that Milkman gives is when he writes a letter to Hagar to end a 14 year relationship by “[folding] the money and
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1418 Words | 6 PagesWhen young Milkman first greets Pilate, “Hi”(36) she replies with “What kind of word is that?”(36) and “You all must be the dumbest unhung Negroes on earth... You say ‘Hi’ to pigs and sheep when you want ‘em to move. When you tell a human being ‘Hi’ he ought to get up and knock you down”(37) by saying this, she teaches him what's right and wrong, and what's good and bad to say. Despite Macon Dead Jr. unreasonable warning for Milkman to stay away from her, Milkman continues to visit Pilate and their relationship continues to develop. Carr Lee briefly explains their relationship in the following statement: “He recognizes, briefly, that his actions affect other people, and he also realizes that by hurting Pilate, he has hurt himself.
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