In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Milkman Dead becomes a man by

learning to respect and to listen to women. In the first part of the novel, he

emulates his father, by being deaf to women's wisdom and women's needs, and

casually disrespecting the women he should most respect. He chooses to stray

from his father's example and leaves town to obtain his inheritance and to

become a self-defined man. From Circe, a witch figure, he is inspired to be

reciprocal, 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 her

wisdom and accepting his responsibilities to women at last. By accepting his

true inheritance from women, he becomes a man, who loves and respects women, who

knows he can fly but also knows his responsibilties.

In the first part of the novel, Milkman is his father's son, a child

taught to ignore the wisdom of women. Even when he is 31, he still needs "both

his father and his aunt to get him off" the scrapes he gets into. Milkman

considers himself Macon, Jr., calling hims

man had was what he was born with, or has learned to use" (277). Finding his own

wisdom. When Pilate tell Reba's lover that women's love is to be respected, he

Circe is the first woman who he listens to and treats with reciprocity.

because of his careless showiness, and must then pass initiation rituals to be

her 14 years later when his desire for her wanes. Milkman's experience with

The initiations include a hunt that leaves Milkman alone to ponder his

contributions to his well-being (215). He follows her advice, and leaves, not

relationships with men, he is prepared for equality with women. With Sweet, he

elitism, the road to equal relationships is difficult. He attempts to repay a

knowledgeable, and he learns that must take her seriously to find his

matter sex or status, deserve his sacrifices (285).

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Approximate Word count = 1553
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)