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Pilate Character Analysis

767 Words4 Pages

Pilate is Milkman’s aunt and his father’s younger sister. Tough she belongs to the Dead’s family, she seems to be not part of it since she neglects the materialistic Western lifestyle of the Deads. In contrast, Pilate is the embodiment of independent women, motherly love and Southern values in an industrialized capitalist North. She does not value social norms and rules and rejects adaption to it. Morrison describes Pilate as a character contradicting to standards in society by her outer appearance and her home at the outskirt of town. Her self-made earring, her short hairs, and her shabby outfits distinguish her from mainstream and express her uniqueness. Furthermore, her female-centered home where she earns her living by making wine indicates …show more content…

Not dead to history and her like his family, she proudly carries her name and identity in her earring and is not ashamed of it. Rather, Pilate embraces her past and what she has learned throughout her travels is important to her. Therewith, she gives Milkman a legacy he cannot get at his own home by becoming the missing part in his life since this knowledge and legacy is what Milkman still misses. Pilate is the first who tells him of his ancestor’s life and the events of the past offering him a loving …show more content…

While his family lives in wealth, Pilate does only own the bare essentials. However, her home is a welcoming place, a place where Milkman immediately feels at home. In this home, loathed by Macon, Milkman finds peace and freedom. As a parental guide, Milkman experiences a different love than at home. “Not that Pilate or Reba felt the possessive love for him that his mother did, but they had accepted him without questions and with all the ease in the world. They took him seriously too. Askes him questions and thought all his responses to things were important enough to laugh at or quarrel with him about” (XX). Milkman finds comfort and starts to like being with people of lower classes. Being around Pilate is foreshadowing for his rebirth already indicated by their first encounter when Pilates offers him

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Pilate and her family did not live in the best conditions, as they lived in “A narrow single-story house… [and] had no electricity because [they] could not pay for the service. Nor the gas”, yet they were still the characters who were the most satisfied with their lives even when they had the bare minimum to survive (27). Compared to Macon Dead, Pilate was much happier with her life in her small house caring for her family than Macon was in his nice house with his family. This was evident to Milkman as he felt more comfort while in Pilate’s house than he ever did in his own house, which was more associated with materialism than Pilate’s house was. Because of the lack of materialism in Pilate’s life, it is simple to see how Pilate was able to thrive and live in

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As a mother, teacher, and spiritual guide, she gives Milkman the affection, comfort, and wisdom that he does not get at home. Catherine Carr Lee states that: ”Pilate begins by instructing Milkman in practical, everyday knowledge: to say what you mean...Because she values nothing but human relationships...” For instance, Milkman and Guitar attempted robbery for the “gold’ in Pilate’s house, but end up getting arrested until Pilate comes to the rescue and they realize it was just a sack of bones. She pays no mind to the fact that they stole from her and puts on an act to prevent them from going to jail. “She didn’t even look the same.

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Without familial ties and history, Milkman lacked the wisdom that comes with knowledge of the past, causing a disconnect between Milkman and his people. Milkman’s journey provides him with the answers to his identity problem allowing his family’s past to provide instruction, and protection, and a certain kind of wisdom necessary in finding his true self. Although Milkman must ultimately define himself, he is also defined by his relationships. He cannot learn these lessons in isolation but only within the context of the present community and relations of

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He is represented with an oblivious mind, and sees everything around him irrelevant if it does not relate to himself in a way. As he continues throughout his journey, Milkman encounters, for the first time, a struggle of not getting what he wants. As he digs for the gold, for the first time, his mind shifts from the capitalistic north and embrace nature, “His watch and his two hundred dollars would be of no help out here, where all a man had was what he was born with, or had learned to use” (277). As he begins to separate himself from white culture, he embraces in his natural skills. This was just the first step to shape Milkman into embracing and seeing his ethnicity.

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For Macon family didn’t' matter to him if money wasn't involve , Pg17 'The one person in the world he hated more than his wife in spite of the fact that she was his sister" refers to the idea that he had no love but hate for his sister Pilate but seem to love the idea that Pilate had gold,also shows how not

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