Milkman: The Eternal Adolescent

Milkman is an unusual protagonist because nothing in his own life seems to be a result of his own actions. Milkman does not really do things, things just happen to him. In a way, Milkman is a blank canvas where other people can paint their stories, and all of these stories come together to depict Milkman's life. After all, there are very few events. Milkman is born when the man jumps off the roof of No Mercy Hospital, presumably because his mother was so disturbed by the man's suicide that she went into labor (Even Milkman's birth seems to be a result of someone else's actions). There are few other events in which Milkman actually does anything. There is the scene when Freddie finds Ruth nursing Milkman, a scene that obviously made an impression on him, but since he was so small he was a something of a bystander. Milkman meets Pilate, Reba, and Hagar, but since he is with Guitar, he is a bystander in that interaction too. He hit his father, and that does seem to have some significance for him, but even then he doesn't seem to be central to the scene because the back-story between his father and his mother is so much more important.

Backstory makes up most the of the most interesting parts of the book. There is Macon's story about his relationship with Ruth and with Doctor Foster, and even though it is disturbing and may not be entirely true (since Macon probably tweaked it to make himself seem guiltless), it is certainly very interesting. Ruth's version of the story may even be more interesting because you can compare it to Macon's story and look at the discrepancies between them to understand the characters better. And Pilate's story is much more exciting that Milkman's. So, as we asked in class, why does Morrison tell Milkman's story rather than telling the stories of Macon, Ruth, and Pilate as if  they were actually happening rather than in the past? That would undoubtably make a great book. But Morrison seems interested not just in the stories, but also in how stories from the past affect the present, and how we are all caught up in an intricate web made up of the relationships of those who came before us.

Like all of us, Milkman is born into other people's worlds, and his character is partially defined by his parent's stories. He is a bystander in his own life as a child, because there are too many undercurrents that everyone else understands but that he does not. That is inevitable for children--they cannot understand their parent's relationships, and they are oblivious of the difficulties that their parents have faced in their relationship. Sometimes someone says something, and they can tell that what they said meant more that the actual meaning of the words, but they can't understand what that meaning is. When Milkman is nursing and Freddie comes in, he knows that something was shameful, but he doesn't really understand. This is a part of life. The interesting thing though, is that even though Milkman is now in his thirties, he never seems to be able to grow out of this. He is unable to take control of his life, and instead continues to act like an adolescent, living with his family, partying, having girlfriends but intention of marriage, and wasting his time working in a job he doesn't really enjoy because that was what was expected of him by his father. He has not created his own stories.

It's difficult to see how this will play out in the second part of the novel. If Morrison decides to make Milkman choose to create his own life, Milkman will not longer be a blank canvas--she will no longer able to show how stories of the past affect people's lives as easily as she has in the first chapters, and there will be less room in the story for the past anyway. But it would be nice to see Milkman take control of his life, to actually do something, and to grow up a little bit.