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 clean-shaven; Milkman was desperate for a mustache. Macon wore bow ties; milkman core four-in-hands. Macon didn't part his hair; Milkman had a part shaved into his. Macon hated tobacco; Milkman tried to put a cigarette in his mouth every fifteen minutes" (Morrison 63). Here, we see Milkman's "passive personality" as he originally sought to emulate his father instead of making a unique personality for himself. Obviously, he "differed as much as he dared", but these are two different sides of the same coin; why not forge a completely different coin and be a completely different person? This may show Milkman’s possible inability to consciously change his behavior patterns. This scene also shows Macon's fixation on tobacco—it is said that he smoked to differentiate himself from his father, but there are numerous other things that he could have differentiated himself by rather than this specific detail.
The second scene that embodies Milkman's very hands-off personality is his waiting for Hagar to attack him with an ice pick. Milkman is described to have laid "quietly in the sunlight, his mind a black, his lungs craving smoke. Gradually his fear of and eagerness for death returned. [...] He felt like a garbage pail for the actions and hatreds of other people. He himself did nothing. [...] In that mood of lazy righteousness he wallowed in Guitar's bed, the same righteousness that had made him tail his mother like a secret agent when she left the house a week or so ago" (120). Through self reflection, Milkman acknowledges his very "flat" personality and is aware of his complacency as Hagar comes to attack him.
There are numerous other reasons as to why Milkman may act the way that he does and I am not trying to diagnose him in any way. However, the similarities are very uncanny and I cannot help but hypothesize that Morrison used this model to shape how we see Milkman throughout the story.
I agree it's strange Milkman put so little effort into changing himself if he really wanted to be different than his father. Perhaps he felt conflicted as part of him wanted to be like his father but the other part didn't, so he followed in his footsteps whilst trying to show how different he was.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a really interesting interpretation of Milkman’s behavior! Milkman does seem very passive and in the first part of the book, takes little action outside of what he is guided towards. Part of the passivity is also how he treats other people and doesn’t always understand other people’s feelings. If he is limited by his upbringing, it makes sense that once he leaves his hometown and his parents’ influence, he becomes more active both in the actions he takes and the way he treats other people. He can finally break free of this personality.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting interpretation of Milkman's behaviors. I don't think all his behaviors are relative to his late weaning though. He definitely wanted to be nothing like his father because of how his father was and how people around their didn't welcome him because he was always making money off his renters. Milkman did end up being him though because of no passion he had and how complacent he had gotten. It does seem like he had a fixation on smoking and was always looking for the next cigarette but that could be because he is addicted which is very hard to break. Overall good post!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting point to bring up, and I think you're right. Out of every character we've met this semester Milkman is the only one who seems to fit this sort of agenda. Wether Tony Morrison purposefully wrote Milkman as such or intended us to get that from him, I'm not sure of. But perhaps he is just a man trying to figure out who the heck he is without the input of others all the time.
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