Milkman Dead was born in a family where his father, Macon Jr., is only obsessed with wealth but he is loved by his mother, Ruth Foster Dead, and his aunt, Pilate. Milkman's mother is the daughter of the town's only black doctor. Pilate is a poor but strong and independent woman, who's a daughter, Reba, and a granddaughter, Hagar, who is obsessively in love with Milkman. Milkman’s grandfather, Macon Dead, received his odd name when a drunk soldier erroneously filled out his documents. Macon’s two children, Macon Jr. and Pilate, were scarred by witnessing the murder of their father, Macon Dead, becoming estranged from each other. When he is young, Milkman doesn’t have any interest in himself and others except for the pursuit of wealth like his
farther. After he is informed that Pilate may have millions of gold in her shack. With the help of his best friend, Guitar, whom he promises a share of the gold, Milkman robs Pilate but finds only some rocks and a human skeleton, which actually belongs to his great-grandfather. Milkman then goes on to search for the gold near the old family farm in Pennsylvania. He stops at a former home of the people who killed his ancestor to claim the farm. Here he meets Circe, an old midwife who helped deliver Macon Jr. and Pilate. She tells Milkman about his family history, which leads him to the town of Shalimar. At that time Milkman doesn’t know that Guitar is following him because Guitar feels being cheated by Milkman and wants to murder him. In Shalimar, he learns that his great-grandfather Solomon was the one who escaped slavery by flying. Milkman then returns home, hoping to tell his family about the history, but finds that Hagar has died due to a broken heart. He then goes back to Shalimar with Pilate. Unfortunately, she is accidentally killed by Guitar, who intended to kill Milkman. At the end of the novel, Milkman leaps towards Guitar.
one page 11) this indicates that he is a selfish man and cares for his
The Bragg family grew up with virtually nothing. The father left the family a number of times, offering no financial assistance and stealing whatever he could before he left. When he was there, he was usually drunk and physically abusive to the mother. He rarely went after the children, but when he did the mother was always there to offer protection. Mr. Bragg's mother's life consisted of working herself to exhaustion and using whatever money she had on the children.
...ography book. But had been from one end of the country to another. One wholly dependent on money for life, the other indifferent to it. But those were the meaningless things. Their similarities were profound. Both were vitally interested in Macon Dead’s son, and both had close and supportive posthumous communication with their fathers” (139). They are very different in personality, but they both want Milkman, Pilate wishes to teach him love and culture, and Ruth wishes to keep Milkman at her side. These characteristics lead Milkman along his journey, both as hindrances and as salvation, and without these juxtaposed mother-figures in Milkman’s life he would not have a well-rounded character and growth which is brought from his struggles brought by his mother, and his triumphs from Pilate.
Macon, perhaps instigated by never having a mother and seeing his own father killed, has always appeared to be a cold and unforgiving parent even to his other children besides Milkman, but since Macon heard that his son¹s nickname was ³Milkman² he has seen him as a symbol of his disgust for his wife and lost a lot of respect for his son and became even colder towards him. The only time Macon did spend time with Milkman, he spent it boasting about his own great upbringing, warning him to stay away from Pilate and telling him about the embarrassing actions of Ruth. This is the manner in which Morrison establishes the relationship between Macon and Milkman in the first part of the book.
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
As a result of his spoiled childhood Milkman takes women for granted. He doesn't consider how his actions affect them. This is shown when he realizes he is bored with his cousin Hagar, whom he has been using for his sexual pleasure for years. Instead of buying her a Christmas gift he gives her cash and a thank you note. He thanks her for everything she has done for him and considers the relationship over. Hagar becomes obsessed with killing Milkman. She makes several attempts to take his life but fails because of her love for him. Her last attempt to kill him is when he is hiding from her in his only friend, Guitar?s room. Hagar tries to stab him but after she sees his face she cannot. Milkman tells her to stab herself and says, ?Why don?t you do that? Then all your problems will be over.?[pg 130] This portrays how Milkman is cold hearted towards the opposite sex.
He has an idea to be rich, and he wants it fast. Being nine year old, he starts out looking for jobs in his neighborhood. After doing two jobs, he earns a nickel, a quarter and two peaches. He has money, and he can do whatever he wants. So with a friend and his sister, they go swimming. Money, to him at this age, affects him greatly already. From his own family, he learns that without money, they'll always be poor and working class. He has the need to be higher in social class and he wants to be like rich people.
In the first part of the novel, Milkman is his father's son, a child taught to ignore the wisdom of women. Even when he is 31, he still needs "both his father and his aunt to get him off" the scrapes he gets into. Milkman considers himself Macon, Jr., calling himself by that name, and believing that he cannot act independently (120). The first lesson his father teaches him is that ownership is everything, and that women's knowledge (specifically, Pilate's knowledge) is not useful "in this world" (55). He is blind to the Pilate's wisdom. When Pilate tell Reba's lover that women's love is to be respected, he learns nothing (94).
Though gold was the initial desire, Milkman was able to forget about his quest for money, because his quest for his family history eventually brought him more wealth and happiness than the gold ever would have. When Milkman gives up in his search for gold, he puts himself on a path to discovering his own self, who Milkman was apart from his family. This discovery is what allows him to “fly” or fall from the cliff at the end of the novel. Guitar however was not able to forget the gold; he believes Milkman has betrayed him so he sets off to follow and to murder his best friend. Poverty led many people like Guitar to join the Seven Days, a racial group that avenges injustices committed against African-Americans by murdering innocent whites. Why if racism and injustice towards blacks rather than economic injustice motivated the group, are all of its member’s poor?
Morrison sets the stage with many explanations for Milkman's unlikable qualities. Milkman's father, Macon Dead Jr., is an aristocratic black businessman. Macon Dead prides himself on his money and his land, believing that it is his wealth that earns him respect and power. Macon Dead is a cold and unfeeling person, having no regard or respect for women or the poor black folk that live in the town that he owns a large part of. Because Macon has no respect for the poor black people of the town he and his family naturally are disconnected from the ongoing racial issues affecting the black society. Where the Dead's live they are more white than they are black.
Song of Solomon tells the story of Dead's unwitting search for identity. Milkman appears to be destined for a life of self-alienation and isolation because of his commitment to the materialism and the linear conception of time that are part of the legacy he receives from his father, Macon Dead. However, during a trip to his ancestral home, “Milkman comes to understand his place in a cultural and familial community and to appreciate the value of conceiving of time as a cyclical process”(Smith 58).
Analyzing character in a Faulkner novel is like trying to reach the bottom of a bottomless pit because Faulkner's characters often lack ration, speak in telegraphed stream-of-consciousness, and rarely if ever lend themselves to ready analysis. This is particularly true in As I Lay Dying, a novel of a fragmented and dysfunctional family told through fragmented chapters. Each character reveals their perspective in different chapters, but the perspectives are true to life in that though they all reveal information about the Bundren family and their struggles to exist they are all limited by the perspective of the character providing the revelations. The story centers on the death of the mother of the Bundren clan, Addie, whose imminent death creates fragmentation and chaos in the Bundren family because Anse, Addie's husband, has promised to travel to Jefferson to bury her with her family. Floods, fires, injuries and poor decisions mar the journey, but the family endures and Anse brings home a new Mrs. Bundren. However, Anse, often read as the most selfish Bundren is the only one prepared to go on with life and accept Addie's death.
wealth which leads him on a journey to discover his own expectations. Using foreshadowing and
Flannery O’Connor used a lot of foreshadowing throughout the story. An example is “She said the house had six white columns across the front” (409) and “They passed a large cotton field with five or six graves in the middle of it, like a small island”. These two passages foreshadows the death of the family as they had six members. It’s also strange how it took place in a town called Toombsborro. This also signifies, tomb, which leads to death. In the beginning of the story the grandmother mentioned about the misfit heading to Florida so she think it’s best to go to Tennessee. There, O’Connor foreshadows that story will somehow end up having the grandmother having an encounter with the misfit.
He is a very poor man. So he tells his young daughter, Tess, to go find job at their “family’s” town, but Tess’s mother never warned her about how mean man can be.