Chapter
1: Homework Assignment
Finish
reading Chapter One.
For your
assigned character, please take notes and POST on some combo of the following:
· * What seems significant about their personality
and values?
· * How would you describe their relationship with
other family members? Does
anything seem odd or surprising about these relationships?
· *Names: What do you know about how they got their
name/nickname? Symbolism or
connotations of their name? What
are the traditions about naming that seem significant?
· *Family history: Significant
myths/stories/memories about this character?
I
Your Post should include AT LEAST one
significant quotation. You will help
yourself enormously if you take note of a couple more quotations that seem
important in your notebook. As always, feel free to
also post on anything else that seems weird/strange/surprising/confusing in
this chapter.
Your
Character is (circle one):
Jan - March Bday: Macon
Dead (Milkman’s father)
April –June Bday: Macon
Dead III/Milkman (the son/baby)
July – Sept. Bday: Ruth/The
Doctor’s Daughter (Milkman’s mother)
Oct - Dec Bday: Pilate and Family (Milkman’s aunt/Macon Dead II’s sister) (Reba & Hagar)
I think that Pilate is the most interesting character we have met so far because there are just so many ways to interpret her actions and motives. One of the big things that stuck with me in this chapter was her appearance. She is introduced with her "shoelaces undone" and a "knitted cap pulled down over her forehead" (20). She is also later described as "unkempt" (20) and foul-smelling. Morrison presents Pilate as a girl who does not really care about her looks or hygiene, which upsets Macon. The question I want to raise is whether she is naturally uninterested in her impression among others, or whether her name had anything to do with that. By this, I mean did having a blasphemous name such as Pilate drive her away from being accepted by society? It does seem as though something about her became the source of ostracism because she lives with her daughter and granddaughter and no men in the house, an interesting little family. A very unusual family to have during this time in America. What is Pilate's history? What parts of her past have contributed to the way she is presented in chapter one?
ReplyDeleteI agree with JK that Pilate is a very interesting character. What struck me about her is that her life is in accord with many transcendentalist ideals. In her house, "No meal was ever balanced or served" (29) Pilate does not follow any routine. Her life is spontaneous. This is unlike Macon who has a more steady lifestyle. Pilate lives out of necessity. She eats what she needs, and lights her home with candles. Pilate is a much different character than any of the ones we have met so far, and I am looking forward to see what happens between her and Macon.
DeleteI think it's interesting how Macon seeks refuge in listening to Pilate's singing: "There was no music [at Macon's house], and tonight he wanted just a bit of music" (28). Pilate is the one leading the small ensemble, which shows her authority in her family, but making music also requires cooperation, meticulous listening, and following. Since Macon's household has none of that, the music (which is portrayed as very casual at Pilate's) attracts Macon "like a carpet tack under the influence of a magnet" (29). The music, which is probably improvised on the spot, also shows Pilate's spontaneity, like Matt pointed out.
DeleteAlthough I don't have a concrete answer to JK's questions, I think that the peculiar habit of Pilate's chewing must have some importance, because it is mentioned twice, first in a sentence, and in greater detail three pages later: "how she loved, as a girl, to chew" (27). Macon remarks that Pilate looks as if smiling or whispering to herself while she chews, and maybe the chewing repelled people from her. I mean, chewing rubber bands is neither feminine nor respectable. I'm also curious to find out where such social awkwardness comes from.
I agree with Matt that Pilate represents a sort of transcendentalist idea, and I think the part where Morrison describes Pilate's birth is a really important moment for establishing the quirkiness and individuality of her character. For example, when Macon remembers that Pilate "[dragged] her own cord and her own afterbirth behind her" and that her umbilical cord "left no trace of having ever existed," it really seems like she came into the world all on her own (28). This myth that Macon has, as well as the fact that other people think she "had not come into this world through normal channels" because she doesn't have a navel, creates a mysticism behind Pilate that makes her intriguing and likable. She obviously doesn't fit in with normal society with her name, housekeeping habits, and her job as a bootlegger, but that uniqueness contrasts the angry and by-the-books Macon, leaving Pilate as the character with the most pull.
DeleteAnother aspect of Pilate's character is where her name comes from, which is Pontius Pilate in the Bible (the man who orders Jesus to be killed). Pilate's father says that the name is fitting for his daughter, because he "asked Jesus to save me my wife," (19) but Jesus didn't save her. This implies that Pilate's father blames her for the death of his wife. Although we don't know much about Macon and Pilate's parents, it could be that the father loved his wife as much as he loved religion or Jesus. It makes me wonder how this would have affected Pilate as she grew up (did her father give her little or no love?) Her solitary existence, even from birth, is reflected in what Thea says above about how she doesn't fit in with normal society.
DeleteI agree with Thea and Matt that Pilate seems to reflect Transcendentalist ideals in her uniqueness and disregard for societal ideas, but I think that she is Transcendentalist to a lesser degree than she is hedonist. Pilate, Reba, and Hagar act on their impulses in the moment, and this is exemplified by their eating habits. Macon observes that they “ate like children”, meaning that they “ate what they had or what they came across or had a craving for” (29). Eating, singing, and doing whatever she desires in the moment is less a conscious decision to act as an individual and learn from those experiences, but is rather a predisposition to act in order to get whatever she could out of life. Pilate’s individuality is innate, as is shown by her birth story, which Thea referenced. Since birth, Pilate acted as if she had never “grown in some warm and liquid place connected by a tissue-thin tube to a reliable source of human nourishment” (28). Pilate had never been reliant on the validation or affection of others in order to live her life. This stands in stark comparison to the disturbing, overly-dependent father-son and mother-daughter relationships in the chapter. The fact that Macon “relishe[s] the effortless beauty” of Pilate’s relaxed actions shows how limited Macon is by his own self-criticism and the pressures he feels to be manly. The only spiritual and emotional release Macon is allowed is watching Pilate’s carefree lifestyle, and he clings to the way Pilate does not, or seems not to, cling to the past. She seems not to blame herself for her mother’s death or resent her blasphemous name or brother’s abandonment. Although strange and unkempt, I respect Pilate more than any of the other characters so far because of her self-acceptance and determination to savor the joys of life, no matter what se has gone through in the past.
DeleteMason Dead (father)
ReplyDeleteI found it disturbing how, despite the fact that Mason displays no affectionate attitudes to his family and turns them“awkward with fear”(10), he is “the single excitement of their days”(11). The way Morrison words their relationship in the following lines seems to indicate that he gives meaning to their lives. Interestingly, the family is living in the Doctor’s home (and possibly living of the deceased’s wealth), so it does not seem as though their dependence on Mason is financial. Is the family so terrified that they have developed a psychological dependence on Mason? Are they seeking his love?
Despite all of his flaws, I think Mason is slightly sympathetic. He evaluates himself through others’ eyes (ex. the keys), and he distances himself from his sister because he does not want to be “embarrassed” by her in front of society. However, it is clear that he seeks her company, because Pilate seems to occupy his mind when others are not watching. She frequently appears in his flashbacks, and Mason finds comfort in secretly watching her and her “shameful” family.
I agree with Tomomi regarding Macon Dead being a very strange character that seems to contradict himself constantly. At one hand we get an image of Macon as a tough man that is “difficult to approach” (15) and on the other hand he seems to show a bit of compassion when he doesn’t have to put on a public face. Further showing the conflicting values within his character, Macon brings up his keys and other things that symbolize material possessions a fair amount. Whenever he feels uncomfortable Macon “[digs] in his pocket for his keys, and [curls] his fingers around them, letting their bunchy solidity calm him” (17). I thought that this particular quotation was interesting because he describes his keys as symbolizing all the houses he owns and how they are one thing that truly bring him happiness. It shows how he seems to try and show that he puts material things before love. An example of this is when he talks about meeting his wife. He says that the only way he got to have a chance to marry her was because he carried his keys with him to show that he had wealth and prestige.
DeleteBy focusing on material gains, Macon is also trying to cover up his love for his family. He constantly states that he hates his sister, his wife, and his son more than anyone in the world when, in reality, he chooses not to show compassion to them openly. A clear example of this is when he intentionally walks past Pilate’s house, pretending not to care. Finally when he hears her singing, his connection with Pilate seems to reignite. Macon says that he was “pulled like a carpet tack under the influence of a magnet” (29) towards Pilate’s home. Her voice brings a calmness and happiness to him that material gains never could. He only shows these deeper and more humane emotions when no one is watching.
I don’t find Macon sympathetic at all not only because of the way that he treats his family members but because of the way he treats the people around him. For example, when Ms. Bains comes to talk to him about her monthly rent, she says she can’t afford to pay it because of all of her children. Rather than feeling any sympathy for her, Macon says she better “rustle up” (21) the money before Saturday or he’ll kick her and her family out onto the streets. Macon should be well aware that children need food and nourishment more than he needs a few dollars of rent, but instead of making any effort to help Ms. Bains he simply threatens to take away her property and demands the money. Another example of Macon’s selfishness is when he’s talking to Porter while he’s on the verge of committing suicide. All that Macon has to say to him is “go get my money” (26). All the Macon cares about is looking powerful and strong in front of the people that surround him. He’s so concerned with the way that others perceive him it seems as if he’ll do anything to look good. This is very clear when he’s talking to his daughter and asks, “what are you trying to make me look like in this town?” (20). Macons daughter is dressed the way that she wants and instead of accepting her, he criticizes her because she doesn’t “dress like a woman."
DeleteShriya Rathi
DeleteMacon doesn’t know the origins of the nickname “Milkman” for his son, but he refuses to take part in using the name, “It was a matter that concerned him a good deal, for the giving of names in his family was always surrounded by what he believed to be monumental foolishness”(15). Macon points out that the names of not only Milkman but also for his whole family are naïve and have little importance. In a way he seems as though he is embarrassed by the strange names of his family, and merely dismisses them in this way to make it seem like it is not a big deal. Names are very important to a person’s identity, in every culture. It is how we identify people and what makes us unique. When Macon fails to acknowledge the uniqueness and value of his families’ names, it is like he them as inferior. He is lifting himself up while pushing them down. This really highlights the arrogance of his personality.
Note, his name is Macon as in rhymes with "bacon"
DeleteAlso, note how quickly Macon connects Milkman's name to something dirty and assumes it must have something to do with his wife. He suspects her. He dislikes her. He blames her from Milkman's naming even with no real information.
DeleteI agree with SaraAnn, I don't find him very sympathetic. In addition to the quotes SaraAnn pulled out, the scene where a drunk Porter is in the attic attempting to kill himself, Macon is, again, only aware of the money involved in the situation and not the person. Macon never addresses Porter's suicidal actions in any way other than to say "float those dollars down here, nigger, then blow yourself up!" (25) Macon offers no assistance or any sort of attempt to subdue Porter, even though suicides are not uncommon in this town. Macon's priorities are clearly skewed, and money drives all of his thoughts and actions, which is not a very admirable quality, and does not evoke any sort of sympathy from the reader or from other characters within the book.
DeleteI politely object to the opinions made by SaraAnn and Billie. Multiple times throughout the book so far Toni Morrison points out why Macon should not be criticized for simply wanting to work his way up. On page 28 Morrison explains the birth of Macons sister Pilate: "inched its way headfirst out of a still, silent, and indifferent cave of flesh, dragging her own cord and afterbirth behind her." Macon at the age of 17 had to experience his own mother dieting in birth, and his sister "inching" her way out of his own dead mother. Macon has not come from an easy background so it is justifiable to say he might have developed a tougher skin then others. Another reason I personally side with Macon, is because at the time period it was not easy to make it as a black man. People may disagree with me but this is the basic ideology of social darwinism. Morrison gives an explanation for why Macon refuses to help Mrs. Brains with her situation: "He had only two keys in his pocket then," before he met Ruth, "and if he had let people like the woman who just left have their way, he wouldn't have had any keys at all (22.)" This quote shows that Macon is a self made man and will not let people stop him. Granted how he acts and moralizes is grotesque in our opinion, but we must look in a "3d view." If Macon kept giving extensions to everyone and constantly loosening up on payment costs how could he have progressed as an individual?
DeleteSorry guys,
DeleteI meant to say dying instead of dieting.
Ruth is introduced to us at the scene of life insurance agent Robert Smiths leap, while she is pregnant. When it seems that she is nearly ready to give birth, Morrison writes about these rose petals that surround her, attracting attention. Eventually, Ruth becomes the first black patient to give birth inside of Mercy Hospital, which is also known as “No Mercy Hospital” because of it’s rejection of black patients in the past. We are given the sense that Ruth is more privileged than the rest of the people gathered. She is described as “well dressed” while the others are “poorly dressed”. Keeping in mind that Ruth is very pregnant here, she is wearing a, “neat gray coat with the traditional pregnant-woman bow at her navel, a black cloche, and a pair of four button ladies’ galoshes” (5). The others have knitted caps that don’t fit properly and quilts draped over them instead of coats. Ruth has an unsatisfying marriage to Macon Jr and is quite frankly sexually frustrated. She stops relying on her husband for pleasure and turns to her son, which is so strange! Her son reluctantly answers her call, as if it were a “chore” and goes to breast feed, even though he is beyond the appropriate age. Morrison writes that this routine is what makes Ruth’s “daily life bearable” (14).
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting that Ruth is the daughter of one of the first black doctors to work at "No Mercy Hospital", and then is the first black patients (to give birth) at the hospital. I also think that it is interesting that she marries someone who doesn't seem to come from the same, respectable background as she does. I begin to dislike the doctor when it says "the doctor knew a good deal about him and was more grateful to this tall young man than he ever allowed himself to show" because he had begun to "chafe under" the devotion of Ruth.This seems selfish, and it seems like he will let Ruth marry anyone who will get Ruth off of his hands. He doesn't even seem to care about how Ruth is treated, and in the end, Ruth is treated very badly by Macon. He makes shes makes she that "none [of the ways he annoyed her father]... did he describe to the young man who came to call" (23) so that Macon would marry her and take her from annoying him.
Delete-Hannah
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI think that Ruth is different from the rest of the characters in the story. Ruth is the only one who really is trapped. When we see earlier in the chapter a man trying to “fly” off the top of the hospital in order to fly across one of the great lakes to get to Canada (which I believe has a connection to some of the first people to escape to the north, before slavery was outlawed in many of the northern states.). Ruth was Mercy hospital’s first black patient. She seems to have an abusive relationship with her husband, and at some points during the book, her love life is so dull that she takes pleasures in some of the most boring activities such as polishing a watermark on her dining room table and breast-feeding her son long past infancy. When Freddie, the janitor, observes one of Ruth’s breast-feeding sessions, he dubs her son “Milkman,” a name that stays with him for the rest of his life. She has nobody to help her raise her child, which is odd, considering how intense the depiction of the community connection in the first chapter is, when everyone gathers around the hospital to see one man “fly.”
DeleteFrom Greg
Ruth is a Biblical name, which brings up the question of whether her name was also randomly picked out of the Bible. In the Book of Ruth in the Bible, Ruth marries a Hebrew. When he dies, she chooses to leave the security of her own people for the uncertain future of the Hebrew people, because she says that they are now her people. Ruth in this book is still living in her childhood home on Not Doctor Street, anchored down to it by her obligations, her memories, her fear of flying, and her fear of her husband. The symbol of this anchoring down is the “water-mark” on the table that serves as a mooring point for her throughout the day. She looks to it as a “prisoner” looks to the sun, to remind and convince herself that “she was alive somewhere,” somewhere “outside herself” (11). This made me think of Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God who puts on a starched exterior while her mind freely wanders and exists outside her physical self. The “doctor’s flower bowl” full of flowers is a symbol of Ruth’s idyllic conception of her childhood, in contrast to the bareness and the damage of the water mark, her marriage. Morrison sheds some unnerving light on Ruth’s childhood, however, when she reveals Ruth’s Oedipus complex. Morrison shows this through the “ecstasy...shining in Ruth’s face” when her father kisses her goodnight, a ritual which she clings to even when she is sixteen and has started to bear a “disturbing resemblance” to her mother which makes the doctor deeply uneasy and eager to marry her off (23). This cycle of inappropriate parent-child relationships is repeated with Milkman. She breastfeeds her son even when he is five years old, and is “thrilled with secret power” when she sees “golden thread stream from her very own shuttle” (14). She wants to feel power, thrill, adventure, but she is confined to her heavy, stifling home and marriage, and thus seeks this power through bizarre means. Ruth has a strange relationship with her daughters too, but in a very different way. When Ruth drops the basket of rose petals as she experiences a contraction, the “rose-petal scramble got a lot of attention, but the pregnant lady’s moans did not (5). Her daughters worry about the loss of the petals, which generate money, rather than about the fate of their mother. Ruth’s relationship with her husband is also strange. Something clearly happened to ruin it, but Morrison is very ambiguous. Macon Dead remembers the “round innocent corset eyes now lost to him forever” (17) and the “sight of her mouth on the dead man’s fingers” (16). Why was that innocence lost? Who was the dead man? Her father? Did she have an affair? Ruth’s character is full of mysteries.
ReplyDelete-Katherine Fleming
Character: Ruth/The Doctor’s Daughter (Milkman’s mother)
Delete“Like the keeper of the lighthouse and the prisoner, she regarded it as a mooring, a checkpoint, some stable visual object that assured her that the world was still there; that this was life and not a dream” (11)
The Dead household’s routines are outlined in this chapter. One routine that Ruth relies on is looking at and polishing the watermark on her dining room table. The watermark itself reflects the Dead lifestyle. While many look at their mansion in awe, few realize that it “was more prison than palace” (10). The table is of great craftsmanship, and the watermark can be hidden under extravagant centerpieces and tablecloths. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the table itself isn’t perfect, similar to the Dead’s family life. This mark somehow helps remind Ruth that she is alive. The entire family seems oppressed by Macon Jr. We haven’t seen actual interactions between Ruth and Macon Jr., but I would predict that she is submissive to him.
“His hatred of his wife glittered and sparked in every word he spoke to her” (10)
As Macon is introduced to readers, Morrison hints that Macon doesn’t like anyone in his family. Ruth has relationships with her children (sells velvet petals with her daughters, semi healthy relationship with Milkman…). However, it is clearly stated that Macon and Ruth are not on good terms, though we don’t know why yet. At one point in time, their marriage was thriving. It isn’t uncommon for marriages to fail, and it doesn’t surprise me that their relationship isn’t healthy anymore. Macon is distant from his entire family, but seems very controlling and opinionated.
Ruth seems like a very plain name, though I can’t think of any other connotations now.
“Her steady beam of love was unsettling, and she had never dropped those expressions of affection that had been so lovable in her childhood” (23)
Macon reflects on the beginning of his relationship with Ruth. Macon wasn’t anything special, but we learn from the Doctor that he wanted Ruth to interact with other people. He hints that the relationship he has with Ruth has become uncomfortable (father and daughter shouldn’t be that intimate). This reflects on Ruth’s interactions with Milkman and how he got his nickname.
I was also fascinated with the language regarding the house being “more prison than a palace” because it says a lot about how Ruth feels as the wife of Macon (10). She has to cook for a man that finds her food “impossible to eat”, while maintaining to please him by setting up the table neatly to make him happy (11). Naturally, she is trying to find something to live for even if that means that she focuses on the water mark that stains the table on a daily basis. Consistently acknowledging the table seems significant because it shows that she is searching for validation and confirmation from the mark in which “she knew it was always there” rather than be left alone and disappointed as in her marriage. This is what has become her life and she is finding the way of feeling “alive somewhere” even if it is “outside of herself”. This is why she is “drawn to the window to gaze once again at sea” like a lighthouse keeper because that connects to being hopeful and longing for something new instead of the stale relationship that she currently has. She feels trapped as if she is literally stuck inside of the walls of a prison where she has nothing to live for or feel remotely happy about as she continues through her journey.
Delete- Niambi Ayanna
Kako Y.
DeletePresented through an overall eerie tone of the book, Ruth has a very unusual relationship with her family. As we are first introduced to her in front of the hospital as Smith attempts to 'fly,' we find that the "rose-petal scramble got a lot of attention, but the pregnant lady's moans did not" (5). This parallels the treatment of Ruth in the following pages, as she is never paid attention to. Here, the rose-petals catch more attention than Ruth does, who is about to go into labor. As the symbol of the cloudy gray circle on the dining table appears, Ruth explains that it was “the summation of the affectionate elegance with which she believed her childhood had been surrounded” (13) in contrast to her present family with Malcolm Dead, who kept his “family awkward with fear” (10). Ruth repeated reminisces her original family as the Doctor’s daughter as her new family relationship worsens, especially after the ‘Milkman’ incident.
I had vague conception of the complexity of the characters of this novel from conversation with people who have already read it, but it was only after the short synopsis of Ruth’s history up to her unusual quotidian rituals in the first chapter that I accepted that Ruth is much more complex than I had hoped. The facet of Ruth’s personality that fascinated me the most was, as Katherine mentioned in a previous comment, the “water mark” on the mahogany table that tethers her to reality, reminding her that “this was life and not a dream” (11). A stain from a vase on a kitchen table is more often connoted with frustration than the affectionate reliance that Ruth displays toward it. This reliance stems from her belief that the stain proves that “she was alive somewhere, inside,” a fact that she can believe “to be true only because a thing she knew was out there, outside herself” (11). The language of that sentence unsettles me slightly; it’s almost disturbing to consider that Ruth doesn’t trust that she is doing the most basic thing a human can do—exist—without the aid of a physical leash that connects her to her existence. And yet, even more unsettlingly, Ruth’s tether is a simple stain on a mahogany table, a fault left behind by a vestige of her father’s own existence: the vase that he would always put flowers in “to grace the dinner table,” leaving Ruth with “an affectionate elegance with which she believed her childhood had been surrounded” (12). Katherine explained it aptly with her reference to Ruth in the Bible—it is the memory of her father that grounds her to life with her husband, when it seems she much prefers to mentally meander through daydreams.
ReplyDeleteWhy a stain, though? It perplexes me that, of all the things that remind Ruth of her father, it is the stain on the table (that reminds her of the flowers, which remind her of her father). The flowers and their “elegance” seem to be what Ruth more closely relates to her father’s life, but it is still significant that it is the tarnish left by the flowers that is what remains after Ruth’s father is gone, a motif that might have meaning relating to the beginning of the novel, with Ruth’s father’s suicide. All the people in town had kind things to say about the man—he went to church, was good to his patients, but was reserved and reticent in public. It was when he was standing on the roof that those same townspeople became onlookers of an impending tragedy and they realized collectively that “you never really do know about people” (9). If what they realized was true, then the pleasant façade Mr. Smith was, in essence, distilled in his final moment to the stain on his reputation made by his attempt at flight.
- Sam Russell
Pilate and the Family
ReplyDeletePilate's name is one of the most significant names because of how insignificant the name Pilates is. Macon Dead was illiterate, and his name came from a drunk soldier incorrectly filling out an ID card. So he decides to name his daughter out of the bible, yet chooses a random word, which he cannot read, to name his daughter, which happens to be Pilate.
"How his father... hand thumbed through the bible, and since he could not read a word, chose a group of letters that seemed to him strong and handsome" (18) Everyone's name in the family seems to stem from a stupid mistake, as do the names of many things, such as "Not Doctor St." or "No Mercy Hospital." Pilate is known as a local bootlegger, and has a very interesting relationship with Macon Dead, as he decides to walk by her house, and watch her cook from the window, yet avoids being seen. She is described as "murky" (20) and dirty, both literally and metaphorically due to her taboo job of making and selling wine. She even sells wine to Henry Porter, a tenant of her fathers who threatens suicide while he is drunk. This could be a product of her ruthlessly pragmatic father, who see's no viable reasons for not being able to collect rent that is due to him.
Intriguing. It certainly SEEMS that Pilate's naming is "random" and "insignificant" but is it? Someone look really closely at page 18--what else is on the page with the word "Pilate"?
DeleteIn any event, whether or not Macon Dead II is choosing at random, Toni Morrison obviously isn't. So, why does she choose this name? What does it imply about the character? Thoughts?
Note: Pilate and Macon Dead III (the one who collects rent that is due to him) are BROTHER and SISTER.
DeleteI found the naming process of Pilate to be very interesting. And seeing that Macon seems to have randomly selected her name from the Bible is an unusual and allows for fate to decide her personality. The moment when the name is suggested by Macon Pilate's mother is in shock and quickly checks with him if the name is "like a riverboat pilot?" (19). She draws the correlation between Pontius Pilate and seeks an alternate connotation for the name so she suggest a pilot. This name would make her responsible and smart because pilots need to guide planes to safety and control everything, and are responsible for avoiding any possible dangers that lie before them. This positive interpretation of the name struck me as interesting and offered a new unique perspective on such a historically taboo name.
Delete-Nikita B