Milkman
What was Milkman convinced he could not do from a young age?
(Bonus 100 if you explain why this is important)
What is, fly?
Example bonus answer: What is,
this reflects his dejected mindset he carried from a young age. This scene parallels his realization at the end of the novel that "if you surrender to the air you can ride it".
How is Pilate first introduced in the novel? What does this suggest about her?
Example answer: What is,
Pilate was originally introduced as in contrast to Ruth as she wore a nonsensical outfit, while Ruth wore a proper winter coat. Pilate also was first seen as singing in public, emphasizing her carefree nature and her disregard for social norms. This immediately separates her from Ruth (as well as Macon).
How do Pilate and Macon's homes differ from one another?
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Macon's house provides survival but it lacks emotional security and love. On his way home from work, he thought about, "his own home; his wife's narrow unyielding back; his daughters, boiled dry from years of yearning; his son, to whom he could only speak if his words held some command or criticism" (28). His home lacks love, revealing his own controlling nature. His home reflects this and has a miserable atmosphere because of it. Pilate's home is the complete opposite. They do lack necessities such as "no electricity... nor for gas" (27) because she does not want to waste her money on material things such as this. However, her house is more spiritual and nurturing, bringing the warmth and love that Macon's house does not have. When he walked by her house, he "heard the music. They were singing. All of them" (28). This emphasizes their community and love and their strong bond which directly contrasts with Macon who has no bond with anyone in his family.
What does Hagar and Milkman's relationship suggest about the human plight of insecurity and connection?
Example Answer: What is...
The relationship between Hagar and Milkman shows how insecurity can turn a desire for connection into a form of self-destruction. Hagar becomes a "hollow" person who tries to fill her void with Milkman's attention.
What is Guitar's backstory? What is the impact?
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Guitar's father worked at a factory in which he died on the job. Instead of receiving proper compensation for his workplace death, Guitar was given candy by his father's boss. His father's passing caused Guitar to build resentment toward society for not regarding Black men as the same as others, contributing to his work in the Seven Days as he seeks to "even the score" between White and Black communities.
When did Milkman begin to consider Pilate as true family?
Example answer: What is,
when Pilate bailed Milkman and Guitar out of jail, giving into embarrassing and harmful sterotypes about Black people in order to help them. This was all done despite his crude attitude toward her prior, making him realize her truly kind heart and her ability to be selfless.
How does Pilate differ from other characters within the novel? Why would Morrison emphasize this?
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Compared to the other characters within the novel, Pilate has a deep connection to the past that others have forgotten or suppressed. When she sings the old blues song "Sugarman, Don't Leave Me Here," she sings with an understanding of sorrow, loss, separation, and love. Pilate always carries her family's heritage with her.
How does Milkman's journey in the South differ from his experience in the North?
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In the North, Milkman just follows what his father says and is not really his own person. He also does not care for anything and has no motivation. However, when he travels to the South, he starts to become his own person as well as finally seeing the importance in things such as his ancestry and human connection.
What is a moment in the novel that demonstrates the importance of connection? Explain.
Example Answer: What is,
Milkman Dead's connection with Pilate. When Pilate sings an old blues song called "Sugarman, Don't Leave Me Here," she sings with an understanding of loss, sorrow, separation, and love. She carries her family's heritage with her and Milkman's search for his identity was strongly influenced by her presence.
How does Guitar's character progress throughout the novel? How does this differ from Milkman's progression?
Example: What is ...
Guitar starts off as an emotionally mature and intelligent character. However, the need for vengeance outweighs this part of him, eventually turning him into this angry, violent person. However, Milkman starts off as a selfish, careless person who goes through a transformation after his trip to the South. He becomes a better person, actually caring about others, learning to understand why love is important and what it actually is.
How is Milkman's mental/emotional state demonstrated prior to his radical change of mindset?
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Milkman being convinced at the age of 14 that one of his legs was shorter than the other, reflecting his extreme insecurity, and further contributing to the way he treats others.
What does Pilate say when she passes away? What greater lesson is Morrison stressing through this being her last line?
Example: What is ...
Before she dies in Song of Solomon, Pilate tells Milkman, “I wish I'd a knowed more people. I would of loved 'em all. If I'd a knowed more, I would a loved more”. Morrison is stressing the importance of human connection and empathy through this last line. It shows that freedom actually comes from connections, community, and love.
What greater purpose does their (Macon and Pilate's) childhood home serve within the novel?
It is the place where their father was murdered. This is the making of the origin where the inherited trauma splits the family; Pilate lives by ancestral truth, while Macon Jr. turns spiritually dead. The childhood home serves as the purpose of facing or burying generational wounds determine whether a descendant becomes life-giving and connected or emotionally dead and materialistic.
How does Morrison's inclusion of Shalimar help construct a greater critique on generational trauma?
Morrison's inclusion of the most "individualistic" version of the African tale emphasizes Solomon's transcendence as an act of abandonment that fractures the family line. When the milkman reaches Shalimar and decodes the children's song, there is a stage showing that what looks like liberation for one generation can become a curse and loss for the next. (Ryna's Madness, Macon dead I's murder, Pilate's exile, Hagar's self-destruction) Milkman's discovery ends in the leap towards Guitar, and the burden of carrying Hagar's hair box shows that until descendants actively tend to what is broken, the trauma continues.
What is Morrison's goal with her inclusion of the Seven Days?
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Morrison includes the Seven Days to highlight Guitar's beliefs and character and how it contrasts to Milkman's journey. When Milkman is searching for his identity through the past, Guitar's involvement in the Seven Days reveal how he seeks social justice through violence because of his traumatic memory about his father's death.
How does Milkman define his relationship with his father after his radical change in heart?
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Milkman realizes that his father is simply human, and that he has done everything in the past (such as his emphasis on owning property) because his father loved that; Macon attributing money and real estate to honoring his father. His cruel way of treating Milkman, derived from Solomon abandoning his children, therefore not teaching Jake how to parent, and passing this down to Macon. He only invited Milkman to be his apprentice to show his love for him, as his father did.
How does Pilate's response to Milkman after Hagar's death further shape her character?
Example Answer: What is...
When Milkman returns to Pilate's house, she knocks him unconscious. When he wakes up, She doesn't lecture him. She instead places a lock of Hagar's hair in his hand and tells him to "watch." She explains he is now responsible for carrying her.
In the scene with Milkman in the woods, how does this provide radical change in his character?
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In a near death experience, Milkman's interaction with Guitar serves as the radical transformation in his character. This encounter shifts him from being a person who simply exists to a person who actively wants to live.
How does a mother and daughter relationship within the novel reveal the pivotal nature of parental guidance?
Guitar diagnoses Hagar as a "doormat woman" spoiled by Pilate and Reba, noting that their unrestrained adoration gave her a "stingy little love that ate everything in signt" and left her believing that she was worthless the moment that Milkman no longer wanted her; because no on taught here that "you can't own a human being" or that she must "love herself first," Hagar can neither survive rejection nor locate her value outside Milkman's gaze, proving that even well intentioned motehring, when stripped of guidance builds self-worth and emotional self-possession that sets Hagar for destruction.
How does Guitar's close companionship with Milkman emphasize the divisive nature of social tendencies?
Example Answer: What is...
Driven by the trauma of his father's death, Guitar joins the Seven Days. He believes that the only balanced way to live in a society is through violence. Milkman however, is completely indifferent to social issues. He is bored by the struggle for civil rights and instead focuses on the connection with his family's heritage.
How is Milkman further defined by his relationships with his sisters?
Example: What is ...
Milkman is not close with either of his sisters, which reflects on his own character. He tells his father about Corinthians boyfriend in order to stop their relationship. Even though he feels this is helpful to her, he never actually tells her why or talks to her about it. Instead, he goes behind her back, deciding her life for her. This is why Lena decides to confront him and call him out on his behavior. She tells him how selfish and useless he is, emphasizing how he has never had to lift a finger in his life since her, Corinthians, and their mother do everything for him. This all shows how he is not close with his sisters due to how own selfish character flaws.
Explain an event within the novel in which Pilate is a central figure and find a theme. Cite specific textual evidence to support your answer.
Example: What is ...
Pilate is the central figure when she has to bail Milkman and Guitar out of jail. Even though they were in jail for stealing from her, she still bailed them out. While doing this, she makes herself fit into this stereotypical role of a black woman in order to please the police and for her to actually make this plan work. This shows the theme of familial love. Since Milkman is her nephew, Pilate loves him and wants to take care of him even though he tried to hurt her.
Name a significant setting and provide an explanation of how it provides deeper insight into one or more character(s). Use specific textual support.
Pilate's House: Serves as a crucial setting to emphasize the stark contrast between her brother Macon Jr. The house is a representation of the rejection of materialism and society's norms. It rather emphasizes comfort and warmth, acting as a place of refuge for Milkman. The setting allows Milkman to enter against his father's orders, falls instantly in love with Hagar before seeing her face, and hears the three women singing the song of Sugarman flying home. This sparks his first real curiosity about his family history and sets him on his quest to teach him how to ride the air.
Compare two characters' relationship at the beginning of the novel versus at the end of the novel. What does this suggest? Use specific textual evidence.
Milkman and Guitar's relationship was shown early through brotherhood. However, near the end of the novel, Guitar, the antagonist, follows Milkman in the belief that he has hidden the gold, and attempts to kill him by pulling a wire around his neck. In the final scene, Milkman declares his existence by offering his own life: "You want my life? You want my Life? Life life life life" The rocks echo... You need it! Here." The mature Milkman has learned the secret of flight, that death does not matter in the sense that it helps bring the deepest knowledge. Through liberation and transcendent values of love and friendship, the discovery of the self.
Guitar's ruthless killing of Pilate continues to point toward a greater central theme. Construct a greater meaning that Morrison is hinting toward with specific textual evidence.
The idea presents that when a righteous sense of political justice curdles into personal vengenance and material obession, it consumes the source of love and ancestral wisdom it claims to protect. Through killing Pilate, a character that embodies hte unconditional connection and lives entirely by "a deep concern for abnd about human relationships" she dies in Milkman's arms, wishing that she knew more people because she would have 'loved 'em all." By having Guitar who once told Milkman that "everybody wants a black man's life... I mean his living life," it extinguishes that spirit. Morrison drives home that in fixating on a material gold that never existed, Guitar murders the living gold of the family, supporting the thought that brother against brotehr violence annhiliates the communcal soul that the Seven Days were formed to avenge.