Analysis Of Milkman In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon the character Milkman goes through many changes and realizations. Up until he reached his thirties most considered him to be selfish and egocentric. Until he reached adulthood he was spoiled by the women in his family, because he is male and the youngest. He is considered wealthy compared to other people he lives around. In the novel we see Milkman’ journey in finding his identity and what he see as the true meaning of life. Although at the beginning of the novel we see Milkman’s lack of interest in life and the important things like culture, his strong love for materialism, mostly inherited from his father, and his lack of consideration for women shown in the way he treats them in the novel. Towards the end

You can see this in chapter one when Milkman is looking in the mirror he starts to want to look for his identity. “Milkman stood before his mirror and glanced, in the low light of the wall lamp, at his reflection. He was, as usual, unimpressed with what he saw. He had a fine enough face. Eyes women complimented him on, a firm jaw line, splendid teeth. Taken apart it looked all right. Even better than all right. But it lacked coherence, a coming together of the features into a total self. It was all very tentative, the way he looked, like a man peeping around a corner of someplace he is not supposed to be, trying to make up his mind whether to go forward or to turn back. The decision he made would be extremely important, but the way in which he made the decision would be careless, haphazard, and uninformed.” (Song of Solomon, pg.

In the beginning of the book he was a selfish, egocentric individual who only cares about himself and his materialistic items. He then goes on a quest to find gold, and when things don’t go exactly as planned he winds up getting more valuable than gold. He finds his new identity that he is happy with. He learns of his family’s rich background. And he shows improvement with his behavior with women. Although Milkman seems like a bad person in the beginning of the novel, he develops into a decent person when he finds his