Some more archetypes and a few too many side notes

I might be a little scattered in order to focus on the ones that were most noticeable (and the ones we are most likely to remember on the exam) while straying away from the path beaten particularly heavily by all of you guys.

The Initiation: While I agree with Becca that one of Milkan’s initiations was when he puts 2 and 2 together with regards to his ancestors and the song, but I think the more obvious one was when he discovers his mothers contorted (and if I dare say, totally messed up) relationship with her father, and how that affected his parent’s dynamic. Not only does our young hero become aware of this, he is proactive as well. He follows his mom on the trains and discovers something that no one else, least of all his father, knew about. As Haley noted, this opens him up to pretty concrete evidence that his family really is as screwed up as his Macon perceives. This familial understanding marks his awareness and maturity starting to advance.

Battle between Good and Evil: Similarly, I agree with Danni that Guitar’s struggle against Milkman represents this, although the first thing I thought of here was Hagar’s little rampage around a third of the way through the novel. Perhaps Morrison—by writing from the perspective of a man—is trying to send us a message about the male perception of women. Think about it, Hagar’s violent ice pick hacking, Milkman stalking endeavors occur once each month. Either way, this clearly represents a protagonist who was tired of his relationship with “evil” Hagar versus a sex-crazed woman who hears the potent ticking of her biological clock. I won’t get too side-tracked, but it is interesting that this kind of sex drive is only present in Hagar and Milkman’s mother throughout this novel [Oedipus anyone?]. Milkman’s thank you note, as it should be properly called, added to his feeling of self-righteous “goodness” while Hagar’s reaction adds to her “evilness” as perceived by Milkman.

To conclude, Hagar’s reaction to the thank you note ["sent Hagar spinning into a bright blue place where the air was thin and it was silent all the time, and where people spoke in whispers or did not make sounds at all."] puts the color blue far out of the range of the archetypal definition. I would normally disregard this as irrelevant, because not everything has to follow an archetype. I won’t however, because Milkman’s defining characteristic, flight, as Haley elucidated, is represented by blue as defined by the archetype. Morrison clearly knew what she was doing with the archetypal colors, so she must have been compounding Hagar’s evilness once again with the color of her PTSD induced happy place.

Also, for anyone who is actually reading this, you might find it interesting, albeit totally unrelated, to go back and re-examine Empire state’s situation with his French wife who loves black men. Morrison might be trying to portray the absurdity of sweeping generalizations about black people. Perhaps she gives this viewpoint to a French person so that the Americans reading would recognize the senselessness and subconsciously register that characteristic within themselves, although I doubt too many flaming racists read Toni Morrison (unless Corbin counts).