An Analysis Of Milkman's Song Of Solomon

Song of Solomon OER
Milkman travels all the way to Virginia on his own in a search for gold left behind by Pilate and Macon Dead, Milkman’s father. Instead, Milkman leaves the town of Shalimar, Virginia with not only a better understanding of himself, but also his family and friends he’d so desperately wanted to get away from. Though he ends up empty handed after this trek, Milkman learns the value of his quality life and material items. This trip also teaches Milkman things he would have never been taught in his old environment around his father, a man who was raised wealthy by his own father. Macon Dead Sr. was murdered when Milkman’s father and Pilate were only children, and he felt as though he had to continue on the legacy of having
Milkman had been inculcated by his peers around him, molding him into a man with arrogance, prestige, and ‘class.’
During his trip, Milkman meets countless people who greet him with open arms, despite his beige suit and dress shoes (it was a Northerner thing). He wears luxury items in a place where people could barely afford food, but he doesn’t see this. He feels vulnerable and uncomfortable when he unknowingly reaches Shalimar and steps into Solomon’s grocery store, so he puts on an act of arrogance in order to match the clothes he wore so that he wouldn’t feel inadequate to men who’d worked their entire life for the little they did had. When asked to go hunting with Omar he agrees, saying he has the “best shot there is,” when he knows he’d never touched a gun in his life, especially for hunting (269). Milkman never needed to hunt, as his family had more than enough money to go to a grocery and receive whatever was needed. He couldn’t let the men believe that a ‘big shot’ like himself couldn’t even shoot a gun. By letting his fear of being inadequate overcome him, Milkman ends up almost getting killed by his friend Guitar,
None of the relationships are solid and seem to only be one-sided. When Guitar confronts Milkman about the way he treats their friendship, Milkman doesn’t listen, but flips the script to the point where he is the victim and Guitar is the one who doesn’t value their friendship. Milkman has also considered himself a player, dating his cousin Hagar and countless other women in his hometown. When breaking things off with Hagar, he decides to give her money and a letter to end their relationship, in fear of what not Hagar, but what Pilate would do to him. This sends Hagar off into a psychotic episode that lasts the better half the book. She not only tries to murder Milkman, but thinks the reason “he didn’t want [her], [Is because] I look terrible.” Her heartbreak eventually leads to her death, and Milkman hadn’t known of it because he was away on his trip. However whilst on this trip, he realizes “he used to love her,” and didn’t understand why “he never [sat] her down and talk[ed] to her.” (301) He understands that being scared of Pilate and what she’d do was irrelevant and realized that the way he’d treated someone he’d been with for over a decade was cowardly. He knew he couldn’t change what he’d done, but realized his faults and took responsibility for them, not blaming them only Pilate or Hagar. Earlier in the story, Milkman, Macon and Guitar decide that