Milkman's Transformation in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

689 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Milkman problem with his identity in song of solomon

Milkman's Transformation in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

Milkman experiences many changes in behavior throughout the novel Song of Solomon. Until his early thirties most would consider him self centered, or even self-loathing. Until his maturity he is spoiled by his mother Ruth and sisters Lena and Corinthian because he is a male. He is considered wealthy for the neighborhood he grew up in and he doesn't socialize because of this.

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.

Milkman?s journey into manhood begins when he is in his thirties. He has been thriving for financial independence since he began working for his father. He also wants to es...

Show More
Related

  • Transformation of Milkman in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

    1788 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the character of Milkman gradually learns to respect and to listen to women. This essay will examine Milkman's transformation from boy to man.

    Read More

  • song of solomon

    435 Words  | 1 Pages

    Before Milkman could reach where he intended on going in Virginia, his car breaks down so he went to an auto shop in Shalimar, Virginia. In Shalimar heWhen Milkman goes to Pennsylvania to look for the gold, he was actually in search of his family’s past. One of the themes in the story is how the history of African Americans histories are not clear and unrecorded. The fact that the history of Milkman’s family history is so unclear and unrecorded he goes through a long journey to find it. Along the way he goes through many places and meets many people that help him find his family history.

    Read More

  • Free Song of Solomon Essays: Father and Son Relationship

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    Near the end of the book Milkman seems to change his view of his father, with some help from the positive memories of the old men in the passage.

    Read More

  • Essay on Individual Verses Society in Song of Solomon

    1100 Words  | 3 Pages

    Milkman is the protagonist of the novel and also the embodiment of Morrison's notion of individual self-discovery.  Throughout his life Milkman is pulled in all directions by the people around him. His father wants him to work with him, his mother wants him to go to medical school, Hagar wants a serious relationship, Guitar wants him to accept the Seven Days. Milkman rejects all of these options and drifts away from those who want to direct his life. Milkman gains his self-awareness after he leaves Southside and travels to Shalimar. The journey through Danville profoundly changes him. He looses or damages all of his material possessions before he leaves Danville. “Milkman is symbolically stripped of all of the things that connect him to his life in Southside”(Davis 225). However, it is in Shalimar that he undergoes spiritual growth and gains se...

    Read More

  • Abandonment Of Women In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, men discover themselves through flight. While the motif of flight is liberating for men, it has negative consequences for women. Commonly, the women of Song of Solomon are abandoned by men, both physically and emotionally. Many times they suffer as a result as an abandonment, but there are exceptions in which women can pick themselves up or are undisturbed. Morrison explores in Song of Solomon the abandonment of women by men.

    Read More

  • The Character of Pilate in Song of Solomon

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    The character Pilate in Song of Solomon is portrayed in the role of a teacher or "guide". She tends to be a spiritual leader as well as a spiritual guide for Milkman and the rest of the society. It could be argued that she is the main cause of Milkman's liberation and better being. She represents the motherly love and gives the spiritual education that Milkman needs, in order to go through the monomyth process. She teaches Milkman the necessities of life not with severity but rather by means of being her own self. Her being connected to her heritage and traditions is also involved in changing Milkman into the hero. Pilate is not the typical teacher that a reader could expect to have in his or her classroom. Pilate is to a certain extent, very mother like and caring towards Milkman. She gives Milkman what he feels he can't get at his rich home, care and affection. When Milkman is alone, it is at Pilate's house that he finds comfort, not only from the people but also from the surroundings of the house. He feels comfortable being in a neighborhood of people that are of lower class than him. Pilate takes on the role of mother to Milkman by showing how a family is supposed to be, which is not divided like his house, but rather caring and loving towards one another, like the environment at Pilate's house. As Joseph Skerrett points out, Pilate does begin teaching Milkman, starting from their very first meeting. Her whole lesson with how the word "hi" sounds like the "dumbest" word and that if someone was to be greeted with a hi, they should "get up and knock you down" seems to get Milkman to notice her. Her role as a parental guide changes to that of one of the teacher and she tries to teach him what is right and wrong. She exemplifies to Milkman how life should be led. She shows him how goals in life should be aimed for and how they should be accomplished. For example, her whole lesson on how to make the perfect egg shows Milkman how even something as little as frying an egg has consequences to it.

    Read More

  • Destructive Love in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

    1770 Words  | 4 Pages

    When an emotion is believed to embody all that brings bliss, serenity, effervescence, and even benevolence, although one may believe its encompassing nature to allow for generalizations and existence virtually everywhere, surprisingly, directly outside the area love covers lies the very antithesis of love: hate, which in all its forms, has the potential to bring pain and destruction. Is it not for this very reason, 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 Solomon, the reader experiences this tenuity that is the line separating 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 transpire when the illusion of love is discovered and reality characterizes the emotion to be a parasite of love, such as obsession or infatuation, something that resembles love but merely inflicts pain on the lover.

    Read More

  • Essay on the American Dream Revised in Song of Solomon

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    In her work, Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison relates a story of the dream of Milkman.  Although he is not a slave, Milkman is enslaved by the fact that as a child, he was forced to participate in a shameful act that he wanted no part of. Even his nickname was derived from this horrific act:

    Read More

  • Racism in Toni Morrison's Song of Solmon

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    Milkman is born on the day that Mr. Smith kills himself trying to fly; Milkman as a child wanted to fly until he found out that people could not. When he found, "that only birds and airplanes could fly&emdash;he lost all interest in himself" (9). The novel Song of Solomon is about an African American man nicknamed Milkman. This novel, by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison was first published in 1977, shows a great deal of the African American culture, and the discrimination within their culture at the time Song of Solomon takes place. In part one, the setting is in a North Carolina town in the 30's and 40's.

    Read More

  • Racism In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rebollo Page 1 When one is confronted with a problem, we find a solution easily, but when a society is confronted with a problem, the solution tends to prolong itself. One major issue that is often discussed in today’s society that has been here for as long as we’ve known it, is racism. Racism is also a very repetitive theme in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. Almost every character has experienced racism, whether it be towards them or they are the ones giving the racism in this novel. Racism is a very controversial topic as many have different perspectives on it.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    Toni Morrison, in her novel Song of Solomon, skillfully utilizes symbolism to provide crucial insight into the story and to help add detail and depth to themes and character developments. Fabricating a 1960’s African American society, Morrison employs these symbols to add unspoken insight into the community that one would feel if he or she were actually living there, as well as to help the reader identify and sympathize with the characters and their struggles. By manifesting these abstract concepts into tangible objects such as gold or roses, the author is able to add a certain significance to important ideas that remains and develops further throughout the story, adding meaning to the work as a whole. Pilate’s brass box earring, containing

    Read More

  • Flying African Milkman Analysis

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    In fact, community is not only the end of his quest but the means; Milkman makes progress only as he acknowledges community. In the characterization of Milkman's father, Macon, and his father's sister, Pilate, the novel sets up a distinct conflict between individualistic and community values. Her communication with her father's ghost, for example, demonstrates her belief that human relationships have substance; her use of conjure in Milkman's conception has helped carry on the family; and her song, "Sugarman done fly away," becomes the clue to the family's history. Macon, on the other hand, represents the individualism of "progress."

    Read More

  • Essay on Milkman’s Search for Identity in Song of Solomon

    664 Words  | 2 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Toni Morrison Beloved Analysis

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cruelty is the idea of gaining pleasures in harming others and back in 1873, many African American slaves suffered from this common ideology according Heather Andrea Williams of National Humanities Center Fello. Toni Morrison, an African American author who illustrates an opportunity for “readers to be kidnapped, thrown ruthlessly into an alien environment...without preparations or defense” (Morrison) in her award-winning novel Beloved as method to present how cruel slavery was for African Americans. In her fictional story, Beloved, Morrison explained the developement of an African American slave named Sethe who willingly murdered her own child to prevent it from experiencing the cruel fate of slavery. Nonetheless, Morrison

    Read More

  • Comparing Consistency in Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon and Tar Baby comparison compare contrast essays

    317 Words  | 1 Pages

    (Incidentally, Milkman gets his name from the fact that his mother nursed him late into boyhood, from an emotional dependence, which points to the emblematic 'stealing of milk' from which Sethe suffers... and her desire and pride that she is able to keep her milk for her children.) See also, Therese, in Tar Baby, whose 'magic breasts' continue forever to give life-sustaining milk, who actively guides

    Read More

More about Milkman's Transformation in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

Open Document