Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Names in SONG OF SOLOMON
page 15: Macon Dead never knew how it came about -- how his only son acquired the nickname that stuck in spite of his own refusal to use it or acknowledge it. It was a matter that concerned him a good deal, for the giving of names in his family was always surrounded by what he believed to be monumental foolishness.
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Macon knows that the name Macon Dead came from a mix-up. He knows that unlike so many other people, his name does not have a significant amount of symbolism. Instead, it has a stupid story of confusion. It is nothing he can be proud of. And now he has to accept that also his son has a name that is nothing to be proud of. The stories behind their names are not ones that Macon wants to go around and brag about but rather keep them to himself and even deny them.
Macon is suspicious about the origin of his son’s name. The origins of his father’s name (and consequentially his own), his sister’s name, and even his daughters’ names all follow unorthodox naming conventions. He feels these unique ways of naming are foolish and ultimately pointless. Macon doesn’t discard the tradition, however, and names his son Macon just as his father had done before him. This, in the context of Macon’s character, was most likely done both to carry on his name and to honor his own father. It is likely that Macon regards his own name with pride and wishes to make it known. It was only natural, then, that Macon refused to acknowledge the name, Milkman.
Macon is very embarrassed of the name Milkman. He is proud of the name Macon even though the existence of this name was an accident more than anything. It is a family name and he wants his son to be known by his real name, Macon, and not a silly nickname, Milkman. Macon wants to be proud about something but now he can never be proud of their family names and he doesn't want people to know the true meaning and real story of each of their individual names, primarily his only son.
Pride Snow
The names in this story are somewhat of a distraction. They beg questions that make us wonder if Macon is proud and haughty of his given first name, or if the shame of a coincidental nickname overcomes that pride. It makes us wonder if he is merely embarrassed by Milkman’s name, or upset that his son doesn’t carry his name. All of that, though, is a distraction from one of the biggest themes of the book, which is the identity of the characters. So often, people associate a nickname, a surname, or any name for that matter as being the identity of a person, when it’s not. A name is nothing more than a decision made by someone other than you yourself. People, especially in this book , struggle so much with understanding why they were born into what they were, and who they are versus who they think they should be. So often, name and reputation are like burdens that weigh us down, when it reality, they should be irrelevant. We are who we are. Names are merely a chance; a title. Macon Dead, Milkman, Pilate, and all of the other characters in this book are so much more than their names tell. There are so many layers. Names and identity are merely distractions that we struggle with for our whole lives. If Macon Dead and Milkman forgot the name on their birth certificate and the nick names they’d honed through life, they would find something much deeper and more fulfilling: their true self.
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