Milkman – A Character We’ve Seen Before?

In class, we’ve dissected Milkman’s character endlessly. His motivations, his weirdness, his self-centeredness, but as we talk, I realize more and more that we’ve already seen many of these traits in other characters we’ve encountered. So how does Milkman compare to main characters in other books? I pulled a few figures – Rochester, Jake, Meursault, and Septimus – to put Milkman in perspective.

First, Rochester. Considering Wide Sargasso Sea’s plot is so wildly different from Song of Solomon, Rochester is eerily similar to Milkman. Both Rochester and Milkman are city people who go off to the country, where the natural world is almost overwhelming. For Rochester, coming to Jamaica is a harsh contrast to cloudy grey England, and he describes the Jamaican nature as being too green and too saturated. Milkman does a very similar thing, saying the nature was lush and “green, deep into it’s Indian summer” (Morrison 226). But most of their similarities lie mainly in their relationships with their respective partners. Just like Rochester uses Antoinette to gain money, land, and power, Milkman uses Hagar for easy sex, in both relationships, there is no love involved. In both cases, the relationship just kinda comes about, with no real efforts made on the part of the men. Both Hagar and Antoinette come from less wealthy backgrounds, while Rochester and Milkman are both incredibly wealthy. Both women try desperately to make their men love them, and both Rochester and Milkman stay emotionally unavailable. Both men end up sleeping with another woman (Rochester with Amélie and Milkman with the copper-haired woman), which is what drives their partners over the edge into rage. The result of the relationship ends up deadly for both Antoinette and Hagar – they are both driven crazy by their men (in slightly different ways, true, and yet), and that insanity leads to their deaths.

Another interesting comparison is Jake from The Sun Also Rises. Jake is sort of the anti-Milkman. While Milkman is noncommittal and sleeps around, not caring about Hagar’s feelings, Jake is clingy and overly concerned about Brett’s sex life. While Jake wants love, commitment, and monogamy, Milkman just wants to have fun with no strings attached. While Jake is heartbroken and furious when he finds out Brett was sleeping with Cohn, Milkman sleeps with the copper-haired woman, not caring about his previous commitments to Hagar. Another contrast between the two is that Milkman is very desirable – according to the novel, lots of women from around the town want to be with him – while Jake is not, and the closest thing we see to someone wanting Jake is the prostitute he has lunch with. Related to that, Jake often feels inferior to the people around him, while Milkman is overly arrogant.

Next, Meursault from The Stranger is very similar to Milkman in how both of them don’t seem to care about what’s going on around them. Meursault is obviously a very extreme example of this, but Milkman isn’t that far off from him. They also both seem to have a weak moral compass. Meursault has no problem standing by as Raymond beats his girlfriend, while Milkman blatantly ignores the civil rights movement. Throughout the book, both of them are criticized for this lack of engagement. In addition, both seem to have a strange relationship with their mothers. Meursault never visits his mother, and doesn’t even know her age, and he describes their living together as silent and sad. Milkman’s relationship with his mother is even more strange – it's weirdly sexual and yet distrustful and hostile. Both of their relationships with their mothers are criticized by those around them.

Finally, there is Septimus from Mrs. Dalloway. On the surface, Septimus and Milkman aren’t that similar, but there are a couple of details that compliment each other. First is the idea of “craziness”. Milkman repeats, over and over again, that everyone around him is “crazy”, and that he is the only sane one left. On the other hand, Septimus is clearly the “crazy” one, and everyone around him is sane. Next, you could say that Milkman “traps” Hagar in their relationship – she is so in love with him that she can’t leave. In a similar way, Rezia is “trapped” by Septimus, because she is married to him and is obliged to care for him. Also, there’s both Milkman and Septimus’ close friendships with other men. Septimus’ best friend from the war, Evans, often appears in Septimus’ hallucinations, and they seem to have been very very close. In a similar way, Milkman has basically one friend, and that is Guitar. He confides everything in him, and Guitar tells him incredibly sensitive secrets too. Finally, for both Septimus and Milkman, their stories end in jumping. For Septimus this results in death, while for Milkman it’s unclear, but I thought it was implied that his leap resulted in his death.

Have you noticed any of these connections? Did I miss any major characters? Is this all just me making things up in my brain, and am I totally wrong? Leave your thoughts in the comments!