Daddy Issues

 Before I dive into this, I want point out the epigraph that Morrison writes in before she begins the novel: "The fathers my soar and the children may know their names". From this epigraph, we have already been provided with the ideas of flight and fatherhood that will occur throughout the book.

With fatherhood in mind, I'd like to discuss the relationship between Milkman and Macon Jr.
One noticeable thing about the relationship between the two is that there is a chronic strain that is tied to Ruth, Milkman's mother and Macon's wife. Only 15 pages into the book, we are blessed with an example of this as Macon says in response to Milkman's new nickname, "He knew that wherever the name came from, it had something to do with his wife and was, like the emotion he always felt when thinking of her, coated with disgust." Morrison gets straight to the point on how Macon feels about his son in this situation. Something I found really interesting about this was the fact that the nickname mostly bothered him because he knew it was tied to Ruth. Already, to Macon the name sounded "dirty, intimate, and hot". But it was because of Macon's feelings of disgust towards Ruth that he was able to further defile the re-naming of his son. It was because of the image of Ruth and her father that Macon held in his head, that anything Ruth did with Milkman seemed to bother him relentlessly no matter how normal it may appear to anyone else (excluding this situation, it was a bit weird). The thought and possibility that there could be a rerun of what occurred in the doctor's house, made Macon want Ruth as far from Milkman as possible. So he hinders the relationship between mother and son in a sort of tyrannic way if you ask me.

Another example of where this distancing can be found is during the family's "fun" car ride through the town. During the ride, Macon forbids Ruth from carrying Milkman on her lap and taking him out to the use the restroom. He prevents her from doing normal mom duties out of resentment and disgust. We can see that this only further alienates Milkman from his mother because there is no solid foundation or bond time in which they can form an actually relationship. This is what Macon and to ensure this, Macon keeps Milkman by his side.

As the years go by, Milkman has definitely formed a close(er) bond with his father than he has with Ruth. After working under Macon since he was twelve, Milkman is associated with his father throughout the town. But despite the flourishing of their relationship, it still wasn't perfect because although Milkman respected his father, he also feared him, he doesn't necessarily want to be associated with as an exact replica of his father-- mainly because he felt he couldn't never amount to Macon. So he purposefully tries to distance himself from the identity as Macon Dead's son and the any similarities that he could've developed from him. This can be observed on page 43:

"(...) he could never emulate him. So he differed from him as much as he dared. Macon was clean-shaven; Milkman was desperate for a mustache. Macon wore bow ties; Milkman wore four-in-hands. Macon didn’t part his hair; Milkman had a part shaved into his. Macon hated tobacco; Milkman tried to put a cigarette in his mouth every fifteen minutes. Macon hoarded his money; Milkman gave his away. But he couldn’t help sharing with Macon his love of good shoes and fine thin socks."

While all this happening for Milkman, Macon is happy because he was able to influence Milkman into the person he became instead of Ruth. Morrison writes, "Macon was delighted. His son belonged to him now and not to Ruth, and he was relieved at not having to walk all over town like a peddler collecting rents." From these lines you can see that to Macon, his relationship with his son was mainly to take a stab at Ruth by preventing her from starting what Macon seemed to think would be an incestuous relationship with Milkman.


Something else I want to discuss is more related to the epigraph previously stated. As I said earlier, in the epigraph Morrison hints at the themes of flight and fatherhood. One thing that I realized about the book is how well it actually ties in with this. "The fathers may soar, and the children may know their names." Re-reading this, I thought about the death of Macon Dead I and how he was shot five feet into the air (practically flying if you ask me). And after he learns this, Milkman gradually becomes more intrigued in his family name (which is hidden behind the quest for gold). And when he finally finds out that his descendants were the legendary flying Africans, everything kind of ties in together with the epigraph. The recurring theme of flight in the book and self search that Milkman embarks on without realizing, come together to complete the novel with Milkman finally learning the name of his soaring forefathers, which I think helps him fully discover his identity.