Song of Solomon

Morrison seems to be emphasizing the distinction between Pilate and Macon. A distinction that also separates the two types of blacks in the 1900's; the content blacks, and the Uncle Tom's. Macon assimilates to white culture by craving material possessions and looking down on the less financially stable blacks. Milkman, as you find out rather quickly, strongly abhors this characteristic of his father, but as you find out later, he can't escape it himself. Milkman has a deep infatuation with flying and becomes obsessed with flying away and possessing the gold left behind by Pilate (two things that contradict each other). He even admits it when he states, "All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." Milkman believes that it is his family that is weighing him down, but in reality it is his obsession with material possessions. The Sunday car ride is a metaphor for the family being trapped by and ensnared by their longing for material riches. In an attempt to distinguish himself from his father, he in turn becomes more like him. "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 wore 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." The narrator lists ways in which Macon and Milkman are different, but they are very trite differences, most about appearance. Morrison furthers this notion by adding words like "as much as he Dared" and "Milkman tried to put a cigarette in his mouth" to invalidate the trivial differences between father and son. Chapter 3 also tosses the ideology that your possessions and appearance don't define you, but how you react to your environment does. Milkman proves to be like his father, whereas Pilate is quite the contrary. Pilate lives in Southside, the impoverished "black" part of town, yet is content with her humble life-style. She is a wine sales-woman who rarely yields a substantial income. Macon is parsimonious with his money, while in contrast Pilate is a very compulsive consumer. Immediately following the collection of her profit, she buys food and her family eats it all, conserving nothing.