Post 5
Milkman's name and upbringing reveals lots of information about Morrison's intentions and depiction of the main character in The Song of Solomon. We can begin with "Milkman" which stems from Macon Dead III's very long (in comparison to modern recommendations) weaning period. From this, we can draw our first parallel with Sigmund Freud's model of psychosexual development. Freud's model tells us that the oral period usually lasts from birth to age one. A consequence of fixation and a prolonging of this period often results in "orally passive" behavior such as smoking and/or a passive personality. These two similarities are extremely notable as they coincide in two separate scenes. First, we find that by age 14, Milkman has "tried" to make himself different from his father: "Milkman feared his father, respected him, but knew, because of the leg, that he could never emulate him. So he differed from him as much as he dared. Macon was