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Final
Common traits in human are selfishness and greed. Every journey must have something
beneficial at the end, otherwise the journey is pointless. People would never go on a journey for
a goal that is nonexistent. Of course there are exceptions to this stereotype but Milkman, in Song
of Solomon by Toni Morrison, is not one of those. Milkman is selfish and would never selflessly
help others. Ironically, he steps out of this stereotype by going on a journey in search for gold.
This gold causes him to take a small side journey to find out about his family history and would
essentially change his view of life. Milkmans greed is what leads him to his familys history
and to take this journey. Milkmans original objective for going on this journey was to quench
his greed with some gold but this greed later transforms Milkmans personality from arrogant
and self-centered to caring and thoughtful.
At first, Milkman is very self-centered, arrogant, and similar to his father. At the
beginning of the book, Morrison uses Macon Dead II to describe Milkmans own characteristics.
Macon Dead II is relatively wealthy and Milkman grows up with this feeling of superiority.
Macon Dead IIs world revolves around money so he mercilessly asks for tenants to pay the rent
even if they cannot afford it. Can they make it in the street, Mrs. Bains? Thats where they
gonna be if you dont figure out some way to get me my money. (21). He is so intent on
collecting the rent that is owed to him that he has no mercy for a mother that cannot feed her
children. He says the children should go onto the streets even if the mother could not pay the
rent displaying his cruelty and how money is very important to him. He is cruel to all these
innocent people for one purpose, to be able to marry the doctors daughter. It was part of those
keys that he could dare to walk over to that part of Not Doctor Street and approach the most
important Negro in the city. To lift the lions paw knocker, to entertain thoughts of marrying the

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doctors daughter was possible because each key represented a house which he owned at the
time (22). Macon Dead II is saying that if he were not cruel to people and forced them to pay a
rent or move out, he would not have two houses or be as rich as he is today. If he had been
merciful to people like Mrs. Bains, he would not be able to confront the doctor, let alone his
daughter. Milkman tries not to be like his father but the resemblance is inevitably noticeable.
Hes Macon Deads boy, aint he? (57) asks Feather when Milkman and Guitar enter Feathers
pool hall. This implies that because Milkman is Macon Deads son, he is probably similar to
Macon Dead in many ways. Feather then adds, So get him outta here (57) which shows the
hatred that Feather has for Macon Dead II and because Macon Dead II is his father, he also does
not like Milkman. The characteristics that Macon Dead II has are transferable to Milkman since
Milkman works for his father. Milkman tries to do the work the way Macon wanted it done
(63). Milkman lives in his fathers shadow and off his wealth and wants to be just like his father.
He wants his fathers approval and cannot help but try to be as similar to him as possible.
Another noticeable characteristic is Milkmans strut and Morrisons choice of words to describe
it. It wasnt a limpnot at alljust the suggestion of one, but it looked like an affected walk,
the strut of a very young man trying to appear more sophisticated than he was (62). This quote
says two things about Milkman. The first is that he has a strut and not a limp. A strut is the
characteristic of arrogance and swagger while a limp is more associated with disability and
crippled. Milkman cannot have a limp because he is too high in society to have a lowly limp.
The second is that he is trying to appear more sophisticated than he actually is. If he was lower
on the social class, there would be no need to appear more sophisticated, but Milkman actually
cares about what people think about him. If he was not arrogant and self-centered, like Macon
Dead II, there would be no need to hide the fact that he has a limp. The greed that both Milkman

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and Macon share is the cause of Milkmans journey. Macon convinces Milkman to get the gold.
Macon, get it and you can have half of it; go wherever you want. Get it. For both of us. Please
get it, son. Get the gold (172). This is essentially the first time that Macon Dead II
acknowledges Milkman for the purpose of getting the gold that Pilate has. Milkman is invited
to a private lunch with his father who he respects and follows so much. There is no way
Milkman can turn down his fathers plead which is how Milkmans journey begins.
During Milkmans quest for gold, he slowly realizes that there is more to life than money
and becomes less like Macon Dead II. Milkman explicitly states that He just wanted to beat a
path away from his parents past, which was also their present and which was threatening to
become his present as well (180). Milkman finally realizes that the relationship between his
parents is stressed. This is the first time where Milkman shows signs that he does not want to be
like his parents, more specifically Macon Dead II. He wants to lead his own life and see New
people (180) and go to New places (180) and not follow in his fathers footsteps, collecting
rent all day. He wants to take his life in a completely new direction because he does not want his
parents past and stressed relationship to be a part of him. However, Milkman still wants the
gold so he can forge this new path away from his parents path. When he goes to steal the gold
from Pilate, police stop Milkman as he is heading home. Milkman furiously questions about the
polices right to stop a car that was not speeding. To which Macon responds They stop
anybody they want to. They saw you was colored, thats all. And theyre looking for the Negro
that killed that boy (204). Milkman always had a very self-centered state of mind up until this
incident. The police, pulling him over for no reason, bring him out of this privileged world of
his and give him a cruel taste of reality. He is just another Negro out of all the other blacks in
the world and he will be treated the same as all of them, no matter his social status. On his way

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to Circes place, he meets Reverend Cooper who tells him a little about his family history.
Milkmans comments during the conversation are more caring and kind. After Cooper tells
Milkman that the Butlers all died and got what they deserved, Milkman says I dont care
whether it did them good. The fact is they did somebody else harm (232). Milkman actually
cares about people other than himself. From the police incident from before, he realizes that he
is the same as all the other black people and there should be no reason that black people should
be treated differently than white people. This quote explains that Milkman thinks white people
cannot harm others because of different skin color, as opposed to the beginning of the book
where Milkman would not care since he thought of himself as higher than the normal black.
Finally, Milkman helps a complete stranger lift a crate. This is so out of character for Milkman
that Guitar does not believe that Milkman performed this act selflessly. He also knew that in all
his life, Guitar had never seen Milkman give anybody a hand, especially a stranger (296).
Guitar cannot believe Milkmans story because the fact that Milkman helped someone is
unnatural to his character. Milkman has always been greedy and selfish and never helped anyone
in his life until this point. Although finding out about family history was a large part of his quest
for gold, Milkmans character greatly changes and as he matures, he becomes a thoughtful and
caring person unlike that of his father.
Milkmans original objective for going on this journey was to quench his greed with
some gold but this greed later transforms Milkmans personality from arrogant and self-centered
to caring and thoughtful. At first Milkman is arrogant and self-centered, similar to his father.
Although Morrison does not explicitly give details about Milkmans character, she gives enough
information that a general idea about his character can be formed. Greed for gold and wealth is
the reason that Milkman goes on a journey that inevitably leads him on a separate journey of

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learning about his family roots. However, Milkmans character changes much throughout this
journey and he becomes a caring and thoughtful person unlike his father. This is the true treasure
that Milkman receives from his journey.

Work Cited
Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Vintage Books. 2004. Print.

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