Right at the end of part one, we enter a scene where Magdalena called Lena is chastising Milkman for ruining Corinthians' relationship. This is the first time she has ever stood up for herself, or at least it seems to be. We have always seen Lena and Corinthians as quiet background characters, the neutral sisters who spend their days making roses and cleaning the house. However, we finally see Corinthians liberating herself as she finds herself a job and a lover. As soon as that is stripped away from her, Lena also has a moment of liberation where she finally speaks her mind to Milkman. In this scene, I find myself siding with Lena. While we have additional information from Milkman about his intentions, clearly the man Corinthians is seeing is one of the Seven Days, Lena still provides a strong argument saying that Milkman never cared before, so why should he care now? Milkman may have the best of intentions, but what has caused him to change them? Does he really sincerely care about Corinthians' well-being, or does he simply want to see his mother and sisters confined to the house, the way he has always seen them? He's extremely hypocritical in separating Corinthians and her new found lover because said man is part of the Seven Days. His best friend is part of the Days and he has no intention of separating himself from Guitar. In this situation, Milkman's logic and supposed care is extremely flawed.
Another question to be brought up in this scene has to do with Milkman's absorbency. He takes Lena's advice and leaves, but does he actually listen to it? The last few sentences of part one read "Milkman turned and walked across the room. It was good advice, he thought. Why not take it? He closed the door.". This casual attitude he exudes makes me believe that he is only taking the last part of Lena's advice into consideration, not her entire argument. All of her words go in one ear and out the other, and he only hears the "you need to leave" part. So while it may seem like Milkman has the best of intentions Corinthians' for and is taking Lena's advice, he is only thinking of himself and what is best for him.
I definitely side with Lena here, and I suspect the author herself does, too (one of the reasons I insist on reading her dressing-down of Milkman in full in class is because it represents such a penetrating analysis of his character). You make a good point about how his "flight" in response to her remarks is (like so many flights in this novel) ambiguous--he "takes her advice," but only in the sense that the idea of getting out of there (the room, the house, the city) happens to appeal to him at the moment. And the "quest" he goes on, at least when he starts, is indeed selfish in intent.
ReplyDeleteBut later, when we see Milkman gaining some genuine self-knowledge and introspection, his own self-analysis (w/r/t his sisters and mother) definitely seems to be influenced by what Lena says in this scene. It just takes a while to sink in.
I think Lena's rant was in parallel to what most of the readers of the novel were thinking by that point in the novel. He is an uneducated and careless man who has never had to work a day in his life. It was good that someone finally set him straight and told him what a lot of people close to him were thinking. As for actually taking Lena's advice, he did eventually leave to go on an adventure in Virginia so "technically" he did something right.
ReplyDeleteThis scene is honestly one of my favorites in the entire novel because Lena really is direct and for once Milkman was confronted with the reality of who he really was, an ungrateful ladies man who took everything his father gave him for granted. I also agree with Michael's comment that a lot of what she told him was very similar to what we as readers were thinking.
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