Milkman's journey to enlightenment

Prior to this transformation, Milkman is a selfish young man who lacks any consideration for others. Although he fits in at upscale parties, Milkman feels alienated by his family, other -African-Americans of all classes, and humanity in general. He is also physically different from the people around him, since he has an undersized leg. Since Milkman is able to conceal his leg, he believes that he can also hide his emotional shortcomings. Other characters, however, are aware of Milkman’s oddities. His mother’s guests comment that he is a strange child and his schoo

Understanding his family history allows Milkman to complete his rebirth. His earlier time in Virginia, singing Solomon’s song and playing the games of local children, allows him to experience a childhood he never had, and the swim in the quarry hole with Sweet serves as his baptism into his new life. The most important aspect of this rebirth is Milkman’s restored faith in flight, which redeems him culturally and spiritually. Though such a faith may seem irrelevant to Milkman’s maturation, it echoes a common thread from the African-American Christian tradition: salvation through belief alone. Milkman’s final utterance about riding on air illustrates his trust in the power of flight. Although Morrison ends the novel without telling us what happens after Milkman leaps, this flight carries promise in it because it fulfills the failed promise of the novel’s opening image, Robert Smith’s leap off of Mercy Hospital. The knowledge that Solomon did not bow humbly to being enslaved but instead liberated himself allows Milkman to break the cycle of trauma that has haunted him throughout his life.

“If you surrender the air, you could ride it,” Morrison wrote. Flying, Milkman learns, does not

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