Transformation of Milkman in Song of Solomon by Toni MorrisonIn Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, the character of Milkman gradually learns to respect and listen to women. This essay will examine Milkman's transformation from boy to man. In the first part of the novel, he imitates his father, being deaf to the wisdom and needs of women, and disrespecting the women he should respect the most. He chooses to distance himself from his father's example and leaves the city to obtain his inheritance and become a self-defining man. From Circe, a witch figure, he is inspired by reciprocity and, through his struggle for equality with men and then with women, he begins to find his heritage, which is knowing what it means to steal, not gold. In the end, he acts with kindness and reciprocity with Pilate, learning from his wisdom and finally accepting his responsibilities towards women. By accepting his true heritage from women, he becomes a man who loves and respects women, who knows he can fly but also knows his responsibilities. In the first part of the novel, Milkman is his father's son, a child who has learned to ignore the wisdom of women. Even at 31, he still needs “his father and his aunt to get him out” of the trouble he finds himself in. Milkman sees himself as Macon, Jr., calling himself that and believing that he cannot act independently (120). The first lesson her father teaches her is that property is everything and that women's knowledge (especially Pilate's) is not useful "in this world" (55). He is blind to the wisdom of Pilate. When Pilate tells Reba's lover that the love of women must be respected, he learns nothing (94). In the same episode, he begins his incestuous affair with Hagar, leaving her 14 years later when his desire for her diminishes. Milkman's experience with Hagar is analogous to his experience with his mother and serves to "[expand] his carefree childhood for fifty-one years" (98). Hagar calls him into a room, unbuttons her blouse and smiles (92), just like her mother (13). The milkman's desire for his mother's milk disappears before she stops milking him, and when Freddie discovers the situation and sees the inappropriateness, she is left without this comfort. Similarly, Milkman ends the affair with Hagar when he loses desire for her and recognizes that this affair with his cousin is not socially approved, leaving Hagar coldly and knowingly, with money and a letter from gratitude..