South in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon: Initiation, healing, and home, The

Milkman's family members are his teachers too, although it takes years for him to realize it. Macon's knowledge is of a very different sort than Pilate's, as he erroneously tells Milkman: "Pilate can't teach you a thing you can use in this world. Maybe the next, but not this one" (55). Macon's world is the material one, but he provides additional links to the past. Macon tells his son about Circe, the black woman servant whose employer, Butler, killed his father; about the farm in Danville, Pennsylvania; and about the misnaming of the original Macon Dead. Macon also says that he "worked right alongside" his father, which Milkman later realizes is an expression of the love and respect his father shared with the first Macon Dead (51). Perhaps most important, though, Milkman understands the kind of man his father once was; as he hears his father's voice changing, becoming "less hard, and his speech was different. More southern and comfortable and soft" (52). For a moment Milkman glimpses what it is like to feel "close and confidential" with his father (54). Milkman's mother, Ruth, also provides information that he will understand only much later. She tells Milkman about his conception, about Pilate's early devotion to him, and about the sexual deprivation that Milkman eventually sees, and how it "would affect her, hurt her in precisely the way it would affect and hurt him" (303). His sister Lena is another teacher, confronting him with his irresponsibility and selfishness, reminding him that he has been "using us, judging us: how we cook your food: how we keep your house" (216). Her final condemnation, that he is a "sad, pitiful, stupid, selfish, hateful man," will serve him later when he realizes that "hating his parents, his sisters, seemed silly" (218, 304).

As Milkman's best friend, Guitar plays a complex role. He functions as a teacher as well as an enemy.7 As a teacher, Guitar pushes Milkman to recognize his weaknesses, his flawed priorities, and finally his identity. Guitar repeatedly reminds Milkman of his alienation and aimlessness, of his failure to commit himself to person or place, and he forces Milkman to acknowledge his boredom and inability to risk himself. Guitar knows that one must take chances, and when Milkman hesitates to steal the bag from Pilate's house, Guitar prods him on with "You got a life? Live it! Live the motherfuckin life!" (184). In this case Milkman's reluctance is well founded; he does not want to steal from the woman who first gave him a home. But Guitar aptly defines the problem of Milkman's emotionally unlived life.

With Part II, Milkman begins his journey south ostensibly to retrieve the gold that his father and Pilate found years ago in a cave in Pennsylvania, gold which Macon believes Pilate stole from him. Critics tend to focus on the quest elements in Part II, at the expense of the preparation for the quest in Part I.8 Still, Morrison introduces something of the magic of fairy tale when in the opening paragraph she compares Milkman with Hansel and Gretel and thereby signals that the usual limits of realistic representation no longer operate. Milkman's lust for the gold is also paired with Hansel and Gretel's hunger for candy, and in the world of Song of Solomon, the search for gold, as for candy, is corrupt.9 It is the "shit that weighs you down," and is symbolized by the peacock that vainly spreads its tail just as Milkman and Guitar confirm their plans to steal the gold. For Milkman to fly, to transcend his alienation, he has to shed his inauthenticity.