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Milkman's Self-Absorption and Lack of Identity


      Song of Solomon is a bildungsroman. After all, the novel chronicles the life of Milkman Dead as he grows up and attempts to find meaning in life. Milkman has two defining characteristics: self-absorption and a lack of identity. Throughout the novel, Milkman seemingly acts in his own interests and ignores the well-being of those around him. He becomes intimate with Hagar, but when he becomes bored, he disregards her and refers to her as a third beer that one drinks simply because it is there. Similarly, he hardly speaks with his sisters Magdalene called Lena and First Corinthians, and he does not view his mother Ruth as a real person with emotions, but rather as an extension of himself. Additionally, he feels manipulated by his family members and friends. He thinks, “Somehow everybody was using him for something or as something. Working out some scheme of their own on him, making him the subject of their dreams of wealth, or love, or martyrdom. Everything they did seemed to be about him, yet nothing he wanted was part of it” (165). Milkman is so self-absorbed that he relates everything that occurs in his community back to himself and presents himself as the “protagonist” in each event. Yet, at the same time, his self-absorption and sense of being manipulated indicates his lack of identity. Milkman himself recognizes that he lacks a strong identity, for when he decides to rob Pilate, he “felt a self inside himself emerge, a clean-lined definite self…a self that could join the chorus at Railroad Tommy’s with more than laughter” (184). Milkman knows he does not have an identity, but imagines that robbing Pilate will give him one. Milkman’s lack of identity causes him to cling onto those around him–Guitar, Macon, Ruth–and transform their own problems and goals into his own, and thus he feels used by them. Interestingly, Milkman’s lack of identity and self-absorption present a chicken-egg paradox and beg the question of whether the selfishness causes him to cling onto others and not form his own identity or if the lack of identity causes him to become self-absorbed and turn others’ problems into his own.

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