Peacocks of Gold

Milkman, the protagonist of Toni Morrison's novel Song of Solomon, has started a quest to look for gold. This is not surprising because his character in the book has resorted to defining his identity with the value he puts on materialistic items. For example, he's uninterested in all the women in his community, but he thinks he should have his wife and the value he places on owning a wife dictates that his identity includes having a wife. So in this case a wife is a material item. My prediction is that he will recover from all his little material obsession. My first reason is because Morrison has alluded to his abandonment of loving the gold. When Milkman talks with his friend Guitar they argue about how they should split the gold. Guitar doesn't believe that Milkman should be trusted in bringing back Guitar's gold. While their bickering was going on, a ghost peacock appeared. At this moment, Milkman started evaluated whether or not he really needed the gold: revealing his awareness of greed and questioning his involvement in it. By showing this display of his maturity, I believe Morrison is foreshadowing that eventually Milkman will give up his greed. Though his thoughts don't express the need to give up his greed, the fact that he questions why he has greed is sufficient because the first step in overcoming a problem is being aware that you have it. The other reason why I believe that he will leave his materialistic mindset in his childhood is because in a town of whimsical mien, Milkman appeared to be an unfit puzzle piece with a normal demeanor. The people Milkman has encountered so far (his mom, dad, sisters, aunt, barbers, and shop owners), have all been revealed to believe in the supernatural and have encounters with it. Milkman is the only character so far who has expressed any form of suspicion in the supernatural. It is revealed to us that he sees his mom chocked by tulip buds but he tells his friend Guitar that it was a dream. When he spends a night in Ryan's Gulch (a ravine haunted by a women by the name of Ryan) with a group of guys and begins to hear eerie sounds of a woman crying, he is the only one in the group to suggest that it's just the wind. His inability to be convinced by the supernatural is made very clear in the book. At the beginning of the book, Morrison goes through great lengths to show his disbelief in ghosts and other mystic creatures. But towards the middle of the book, she gives distinctions of Milkman changing his point of view. He begins "experiencing the sight of Macon Dead I" (251) as well as a white peacock. In seeing these apparitions, Milkman's character doesn't face them with uncertainty. Instead, he recognizes presence with conviction. As the ghosts become more frequent and Milkman's self-awareness becomes more evident. There are clear parallels set between the supernatural and his greed. For example, when he becomes aware of his greed he also notices the apparition of a peacock. Though he eventually ignores the peacock, he believes it is there just like how he recognized his greed was there.
If he is able to overcome his disbelief of the supernatural, he will eventually be able to overcome his greed.