Lena's (only) Rant
At the end of part 1 in Song of Solomon, I was pretty surprised at how Lena completely bashed Milkman on the last more-than-thirty years of his life. She talks about how he has been "laughing at [Lena, Corinthians, and Ruth, their] whole life" (215). She talks about how he never cleans after himself, thinks that he is the privileged of the family, and is basically a "sad, pitiful, stupid, selfish, hateful man" (216). But this is the first time I've ever seen Lena in action, and passionately in action. Even Milkman is surprised that she even talks to him, since he thinks that she was someone "to whom he had not said more than four consecutive sentences since he was in ninth grade" (211). Even though this is her only part in the novel that is significant, she makes her point well, and Milkman does take at least some of it to heart when he sets out on his adventure. Not all of it of course...
Her grievances against him are legitimate. She talks about how he told on Corinthians to Macon because he was from Southside, how he hit his father thinking he was now in authority, how he never thinks if anyone's welfare other than himself, and his ingratitude towards the women in his household. But we can also fight for Milkman. Of course he hasn't been the best member of the family, as we see he thinks his family and his past are weird and wants nothing to do with them. He doesn't exactly "harm" them, but he doesn't care for them or reciprocate their love for him. But in the case of Corinthians, Milkman did care for his sister--not because he didn't want her to be with a Southside man, but because Porter was from the Seven Days and he didn't want his sister being caught up in that. With his mother, he was actually trying to protect her for once, and he could've done better, but he had good intentions. Lena is right on the facts, but she doesn't really know Milkman's intentions, which happens a lot in this book. Morrison keeps bringing up the idea that things are not what they seem, and feelings can show the complete opposite of their actions. We see this with Hagar's love for Milkman meaning attempted murder, or with Pilate's love for Reba leading to "crazy love" where she literally stabs (but doesn't kill) a man. Nevertheless, this is a wake up call for Milkman to start thinking about others instead of himself all the time, and to basically go get a life.
I would also argue that this is a wake up call to the reader. As we read form Milkman's perspective, we haven't heard much of how others view him, other than Hagar and Ruth. We tend to think of Milkman as a very go with the flow, I don't care about anything in particular, luke-warm kind of guy. He certainly thinks f himself that way, telling Lena "I don't carry no stick; I live and let live. You know that'"(214)." But in fact his lukewarmness does harm others, not just Hagar, but his sisters as well. His indifference and ingratitude hurts them, how he never cleans after himself or helps around. Its not just that he doesn't do anything, but in his not doing anything, he harms others too. Its important for us as readers to see that perspective as well.
What did you guys think of Lena's rant?
You bring up a really good point on how Morrison has been constantly engaging with the idea of things not really being what they seem, and that makes me wonder if Lena's rant was also an effort to get Milkman to change, and not to just get her (justified, I think) feelings out there for him to hear. I agree that what Lena said also served as a wake up call to the reader and showed us how others perceived him. Before getting to this part, I was just as lukewarm about Milkman as he is about others. I didn't think he was particularly harmful or anything, though some of the things he said were a bit troubling (e.g. buying a plane ticket to get out of Montgomery, if he was there). But after, I'm way more aware of how consequential his indifference and lack of care is.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally with you that this impacts our perception of Milkman as a narrator. While we might be inclined to think of his perspective as accurate, Lena's rant shows us that we've actually been getting quite the skewed picture of his life. Milkman's ability to go with the flow, to not engage with any responsibilities, is not because those responsibilities are not present in his life; he has simply pushed them onto his sisters. We as readers are not aware of this until Lena tells us, because Milkman is not aware. As such, Lena's rant functions, as you note, as a wake-up call for both the reader and Milkman.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that Lena’s rant is a wake up call for the reader. As we read Song of Solomon, it’s easy to get lost in Milkman’s perception. The way he lays out life is so simple, so logical, so “It’s not me its them”. Just thinking about every time he says other people are crazy and he’s the sane one is frustrating because obviously he isn’t taking into account any perspective but his own. A great example of his biased view is his letter to Hagar. As he was describing the letter and his thought process, I as a reader was totally there with him – after all, it makes sense to write a nice thank you letter and give a person some cash…right? But after stepping away for a second I could see how awful that action truly was, and how skewed it was by Milkman’s perspective. Lena’s rant does serve as proof to the reader that Milkman’s point of view is incredibly biased and inaccurate.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really liked how you described how Milkman was quite empathetic during Lena's rant at him. What was very interesting was that Milkman is quite lukewarm in the sense that he stays within the boundaries that has been set for himself within the reaches of his father's influence. But the way that he does kind of half-heartedly tries within those boundaries was quite interesting and something that I think we explored in class. He tries, but not enough. And because of this, although we can acknowledge Milkman's effort, he is still at fault for not trying to the best of his ability. At least in the first part of the novel.
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