d the main character down to the physical world and kept him from achieving his long-term goal of flight. "Milkman's desire to fly mirrors one of the foremost fantasies of any child or dreamer. The child's desire to fly is expressed when Milkman (as a young child) loses all interest in himself when he realizes that he cannot fly" (Earl 2). Even past the time he was given his nickname, his life was full of hardships that followed at his heels.
             His father, Macon, a money-hungry land owner, convinced him that it was necessary for he and his friend Guitar to steal a bag of bones from his aunt Pilate, a bag that Macon was convinced was " '...full of something hard enough to give you a hickey on your head when you bumped into it. That's the gold, boy. That's it!'" (Morrison 172).. The conflict that resulted from the attempted robbery left Milkman Dead feeling as though he had seen two sides of his aunt: one which was strong and almost overbearing, and the other that was meek and much like the older woman she really was.
             "Pilate had been shorter. As she stood there in the receiving room of the jail, she didn't even come up to the sergeant's shoulder – and the sergeant's head barely reached Milkman's own chin. But Pilate was as tall as he was. ... And her hands were shaking as she described how she didn't know the sack was gone
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