Women in Solomon
Song of Solomon: Milkman Dead - Respecting and Listening to Women In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Milkman Dead becomes a man bylearning to respect and to listen to women. In the first part of the novel, heemulates his father, by being deaf to women's wisdom and women's needs, andcasually disrespecting the women he should most respect. He chooses to strayfrom his father's example and leaves town to obtain his inheritance and tobecome a self-defined man. From Circe, a witch figure, he is inspired to bereciprocal, and through his struggle for equality with men and then with women,he begins to find his inheritance, which is knowing what it is to fly, not gold.At the end, he acts with kindness and reciprocity with Pilate, learning from herwisdom and accepting his responsibilities to women at last. By accepting histrue inheritance from women, he becomes a man, who loves and respects women, whoknows he can fly but also knows his responsibilties. In the first part of the novel, Milkman is his father's son, a childtaught to ignore the wisdom of women. Even when he is 31, he still needs "bothhis father and his aunt to get him off" the scrapes he gets into. Milkmanconsiders himself Macon, Jr., calling hims
As Pilate dies, he sings for her, an act ofkindness, signifying a new paradigm in his relationships with women. Circe is the first woman who he listens to and treats with reciprocity. Finding his ownidentity, he realizes the right others have to demand responsibility from him. However, in Shalimar, the home of his ancestors, hemust relearn the significance of others' dignity. For a boy brought up in an atmosphere of blind bourgeoiselitism, the road to equal relationships is difficult. Milkman realizes that he is not yeta man, and tries, first through his father's and then through his own way, tofind the missing inheritance that will set him free. When Pilate tell Reba's lover that women's love is to be respected, helearns nothing (94). Her beloved granddaughter has been sacrificed to him, andthis is the only way he can make amends. He attempts to repay aman for a ride and a coke, only to realize that this is offensive to the man'sdignity (255). To get the inheritance, hemust listen to women, which necessitates relationships of reciprocity with menand with women. How do this makes him a man? At last, he can return to Pilate some ofthe history she has bequeathed him. Similarly, Milkman ends the affair with Hagar when heloses the desire for her and recognizes that this affair with his cousin is notsocially approved, leaving Hagar coldly and consciously, with money and a letterof gratitude. By inertia, he assumes his father's attitude toward women, placingthem in the periphery of his mind, though they are the center and the source ofhis life. With this act,he ritualistically accepts his inheritiance of responsibilty for others,specifically the women in his life.
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Acceptance Essays
