Topic > The Milkman's Search for Identity in the Song of Solomon men. However, the salience of race and the absence of racial diversity hinders a Black male's ability to progress into adulthood. In this way, the Black male is left to continually struggle for an identity, to understand who he is rather than how he is viewed. “Song Of Solomon” by Toni Morrison is a coming-of-age story focusing on the main protagonist Milkman Dead and his journey from birth to adulthood. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay A major theme within Song Of Solomon is a milkman's search for identity as a black man and his journey also serves as a key to his spiritual identity, connecting him to his past while incorporating the present and bringing it to self-discovery. Song Of Solomon in a multitude of ways traces the coming of age of Milkman Dead, it begins with a civilian named Robert Smith jumping from the roof of Mercy Hospital. "When the child discovered, at four years old...."After the fall of Robert Smith the milkman is born dead, but just like Robert Smith the milkman's desire is to escape his life through flight." But there was a lack of coherence , a meeting of characteristics into a total self.” Milkman at a young age was characterized as a strange and dead (emotionally) child who seemed to lack personality, grows up not knowing who he is when he looks in the mirror, all he sees is a be incomplete . Milkman's adult neighborhood has been backed away from, and as the only child of an upper-middle class family, he also resists the sense of interconnectedness and devotion to others that is required of adults. mirror image of his father Macon Dead, he persistently tries to manage the milkman and prevents him from becoming independent without realizing that the milkman is constantly changing and is trapped in the context of his own life. The white peacock, the peacock, is mentioned in the novel white symbolizes the milkman and how at first he cannot take flight and is weighed down by jewels, those jewels represent how the milkman is privileged and has the wealth of a white man, all because of his father and because of this he prevents the milkman to fly and understand himself. "I don't want to be my old man's delivery boy anymore...". Milkman values materialistic things like his father, he becomes very arrogant and has the mentality that money is the gateway to freedom and power, however he felt like everyone was using him, making him the object of their needs. Milkman slowly begins to understand this and realizes that he needs to be his own man, to be an independent man. "Who are you to approve or disapprove of someone or something...". After years of unexpressed dislike, Magdalena confronts Milkman for looking out the window at a dying maple tree, Lena tells him about all his faults. This symbolizes the fact that the milkman has never done anything for anyone in his entire life and yet people have sacrificed so much for him and the peeing escapade has completely ruined his sister's life, which then causes the personality to change /identity of the milkman and he realizes that he needs to change within himself. The milkman is reborn and an important aspect of his rebirth is the responsibility he took for Hagar's death, the milkman only took advantage of women during his youth and saw them as nothing more than objects and taking that
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