The other day in class, someone brought up the fact that Milkman believes everyone around him is crazy. I didn't really make that observation, but after reading a couple more chapters, I realized how true it was. Milkman presents the people in his life as absurd, creepy, immoral, or altogether irrelevant. So I was confused about why I didn't feel the same way about these characters, since Milkman is the protagonist and usually the reader's perspective aligns with the main character. It took me until Lena's epic speech at the end of Part One to realize why I was not entirely on board with Milkman's perspective.
In Milkman's eyes, everyone in his life is crazy. Macon, his father, is crazy because of his efforts to uphold meaningless traditions, such as parading his family around the town in his car at 20mph, to make himself feel powerful. Guitar is crazy because he willingly gets involved with organized crime through The Seven Day. Hagar is crazy because she stalks Milkman and makes attempts on his life because of her desperate love for him. Ruth is crazy because she visits her father's grave in the middle of the night. Pilate is crazy because of her physical abnormality and the abnormal ways she supports herself and her family.
When describing these characters and reasons Milkman thinks they're crazy, he sounds right. And I believed him for a while, as each character was introduced, each one weirder than the last. But if you think everyone around you is crazy, who is the crazy one? I began to realize that there is something Milkman does not see in people, something that humanizes the people in his life that he is blind to. Our discussions in class helped me see. Macon isn't crazy, he's insecure about his status in the family and in comparison to Ruth's legendary father. Guitar isn't crazy, he is trying to search for truth in a racist and unjust society, and although his methods of doing so are immoral, he explains his beliefs quite eloquently. Hagar isn't crazy, she and Milkman had been dating for 14 years and he broke up with her through a thank-you note. Ruth isn't crazy, she has been deprived of love and purpose since the age of 16 and everyone around her doesn't recognize her isolation.
It is Milkman, who's had his life served to him on a silver platter as Lena kindly reminds him, who lacks the ability to understand those around him. He cannot relate to the socio-economic struggles of his friend, the isolation of his mother, the complicated past of his father, the value of commitment of his ex. Instead, Milkman hits Macon and asserts his ability to see and define everyone around him as he wishes. He can call anyone he wants crazy because he is the only sane one. What he doesn't realize is that if you're the only sane one, you're doing something wrong.
If Lena didn't call him out on all of this, Milkman could've gone on riding his high horse forever.
Thank god for Lena.
Loewy this is such a good post!! This is a really interesting evaluation of Macon's perspective on the world. He sees everyone else's passions, struggles, and emotions as signs of craziness mostly because in comparison to himself they actually care about things while he is very passive and mostly just lets things happen to him and doesn't have a true passion or struggle for anything in his whole life.
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of Milkman's actual sanity was really enjoyable to read! I agree with you and, quite frankly, I think that Milkman has a lot of introspection to do. I feel that the first section of Part 2 shows him starting to realize what's wrong with him instead of focusing solely on what's wrong with the people around him, which is exciting for us readers to see happen.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this! Lena's rant (and to a lesser extent Guitar's) opened my ideas to the unreliability of Milkman's narration. Because he's never experienced any kind of longterm discomfort or difficulties, he's not able to fathom other people having had these kinds of experiences; hence, when they behave in a way that he deems somehow problematic or strange, he attributes it to a failing mind rather than considering the legitimate reasons behind it. Additionally, dismissing the concerns of those around him as 'craziness' allows him to divorce himself from the situation, preventing him from having to do any real introspection or self-analysis.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post! Milkman's self-righteous indignation definitely seems to stem from his perception that the people around him are insane--and I think this also explains why he doesn't really try to argue with any of them. However, this dismissal on his part builds his habit of not making any attempt to understand them. He's been resigned to his family's idiosyncrasies so long that he's not inclined to try and see things from their perspectives any more than to pick fights with them. When we do see Milkman confront the people he considers crazy, his reaction isn't totally clear (for example when he talks to his mom) so it's hard to say whether or not their POVs will end up effecting his. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteI agree it definitely would be a mistake to qualify most of the characters as crazy, and I think that Milkman just doesn't really understand people. I especially think that it is weird that he seems to completely ignore his family and I think that its right to say that Milkman definitely needed someone to say something to him about his behavior.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. The thing that resonated the most with me was about Hagar. Upon first read, Hagar DEFINITIELY seemed like the crazy one, trying to murder Milkman in various ways with various weapons. In addition, when Milkman ‘broke up’ with Hagar, I felt as if I could sense Milkman’s sincerity in his letter and his genuine (and reasonable, I think he has the right to do what he feels best for him) desire to let go of Hagar gently. It wasn’t until a little later, actually, until I realized how terrible Milkman’s method was. Because of these things, I fell into the trap of thinking that Hagar was the bizarre one. But, like you mentioned, there’s a long history of their ‘relationship’ and Hagar has just consistently been used by Milkman.
ReplyDeleteI think that the book has done a good job of presenting one view and then breaking it down with the perspective of another character. For example, we first hear Macon's story about Ruth that portrays her as strange and crazy but when we hear Ruth's side of the story we get a very different picture. The way that the book sets up these differences of opinion makes it hard to tell what to believe and who is crazy.
ReplyDeleteThis is just my opinion, but I don't think everyone around Milkman is sane. By no means are they all crazy, but Macon, who took his wife's close relationship with her father to be almost worthy of killing for, could be considered crazy. So could Hagar, who literally died because of her illogical lust for Milkman (or lust to kill him). While Milk may have exaggerated the craziness of some to apply it to all the people around him, there were crazy people around him.
ReplyDeleteNice post! It's interesting how since Milkman is the main character who gives us a view of the others, our views are similar to his. At first I also thought that Hagar was the insane one, because of the way Milkman portrayed her. But later, I realized how flawed this was and that Milkman had as much, if not more, fault in the whole situation.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Although I still wouldn't call Hagar or Ruth or Guitar or Macon or basically every character in this book totally sane, I would say that Milkman refuses to see what has driven all of them to their so-called craziness he claims they all possess. Milkman always thinks he is right--which he realizes isn't always the case.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! It is frustrating to see Milkman dismiss all of these characters simply under the umbrella of “crazy”. The situation with Hagar was especially annoying because it was such an example of the “hysterical woman” trope. Like the whole scene with him writing the letter to Hagar, his train of thought just felt so much like “look at me, the Rational Man, doing what’s best for this woman who clearly can’t make the right decisions on her own”. And then after Hagar’s (although admittedly extreme) reaction, he just seemed to write her off as crazy, with there not being a possibility of maybe this being his fault in some way. Awesome post though, it was a great analysis of Milkman!
ReplyDeleteMilkman's issue is that he sees the bad side of people, but not the parts that humanize them. He's oblivious because he only really cares about people in terms of how they affect him. Everyone is crazy to some degree, he just blows it up in his head. This is a really thought-provoking post. Nice job!
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