Physical Abnormalities
In Song of Solomon, two of the main characters, Pilate and Milkman, both have physical abnormalities. Pilate doesn't have a navel, where Milkman's one leg is shorter than the other. Even though both of their physical abnormalities seem minor, they have both impacted their lives.
When Pilate was younger she was frequently ostracized from her different communities for her lack of a navel. As soon as someone would find out about her physical abnormality, usually while having sex, they would spread the word to everyone else in the community. Pilate then would often be thrown out, because the community members were scared of the impacts of being around a woman who's "different". Because of this treatment, Pilate changed her entire life to make sure no one would ever find out about her lack of a navel. When she worked with the island community and got pregnant, "Pilate refused to marry the man, who was eager to take her for his wife. Pilate was afraid that she wouldn't be able to hide her stomach form a husband forever. And once he saw that uninterrupted flesh, he would respond the same way everybody else had" (Morrison 147). It took her a long time to learn to be independent and not care about what other people thought about her lack of a navel. When we see Pilate with Guitar and Milkman, it seems as though her lack of a navel is no longer an issue to her and she now carries her physical abnormality with pride.
Milkman's physical abnormality is less prominent. Milkman says he noticed it himself, but it wasn't that clear that everybody else knew about it. Milkman even says that his parents didn't fully realize that his one leg was shorter than the other. Like Pilate, Milkman tries very hard to cover up his abnormality. He changes his stride, making him limp a little, and doesn't mention it a lot. It seems as though his physical abnormality does not hold a lot of meaning for him. He doesn't feel much shame for his shorter leg but also doesn't seem to be overly proud of it either. He just deals with having to change some things in his life, like walking and standing differently. While reading Song of Solomon we begin to understand how it is for Milkman to live with this physical abnormality. The topic isn't present on every page, but sometimes it gets mentioned. This seems to be a lot like Milkman sees his shorter leg: it isn't omnipresent, but sometimes it comes up and affects things in his life.
Both characters see impacts in their lives because of their physical abnormalities, but the way Pilate and Milkman treat their physical abnormalities differs. Pilate started out ashamed and ostracized for her lack of a navel, where Milkman seems to feel neither shame nor pride for his disproportionality.
What do you think about how Milkman and Pilate react to their physical abnormalities? Feel free to leave your thoughts below!
When Pilate was younger she was frequently ostracized from her different communities for her lack of a navel. As soon as someone would find out about her physical abnormality, usually while having sex, they would spread the word to everyone else in the community. Pilate then would often be thrown out, because the community members were scared of the impacts of being around a woman who's "different". Because of this treatment, Pilate changed her entire life to make sure no one would ever find out about her lack of a navel. When she worked with the island community and got pregnant, "Pilate refused to marry the man, who was eager to take her for his wife. Pilate was afraid that she wouldn't be able to hide her stomach form a husband forever. And once he saw that uninterrupted flesh, he would respond the same way everybody else had" (Morrison 147). It took her a long time to learn to be independent and not care about what other people thought about her lack of a navel. When we see Pilate with Guitar and Milkman, it seems as though her lack of a navel is no longer an issue to her and she now carries her physical abnormality with pride.
Milkman's physical abnormality is less prominent. Milkman says he noticed it himself, but it wasn't that clear that everybody else knew about it. Milkman even says that his parents didn't fully realize that his one leg was shorter than the other. Like Pilate, Milkman tries very hard to cover up his abnormality. He changes his stride, making him limp a little, and doesn't mention it a lot. It seems as though his physical abnormality does not hold a lot of meaning for him. He doesn't feel much shame for his shorter leg but also doesn't seem to be overly proud of it either. He just deals with having to change some things in his life, like walking and standing differently. While reading Song of Solomon we begin to understand how it is for Milkman to live with this physical abnormality. The topic isn't present on every page, but sometimes it gets mentioned. This seems to be a lot like Milkman sees his shorter leg: it isn't omnipresent, but sometimes it comes up and affects things in his life.
Both characters see impacts in their lives because of their physical abnormalities, but the way Pilate and Milkman treat their physical abnormalities differs. Pilate started out ashamed and ostracized for her lack of a navel, where Milkman seems to feel neither shame nor pride for his disproportionality.
What do you think about how Milkman and Pilate react to their physical abnormalities? Feel free to leave your thoughts below!
I have been trying to find deeper implications for Pilate's physical abnormality, but forgot completely about Milkman's, which I think says something about the nature of their differences. Pilate's abnormality, as you said, has a huge impact on how she conducts herself in society (despite the fact that her abnormality seems preferable over Milkman's tbh). This could be in reference to emphasis on female physical beauty in society, as it affects Pilate's sex life more than anything. Meanwhile, Milkman always seems to be caught in the middle of things, so his confusing indifference could be a tribute to his general lack of confidence in his identity.
ReplyDeleteGoing along with Emma's previous comment, I think it is definitely interesting how Milkman barely mentions his "disability" after that one time, and I would wonder if he still limps a little, seeing as so much time has passed. It could also be that he just stopped noticing after his string of puberty-caused self-consciousness. With Pilate, a lot of the societal impacts of her abnormality seem to be caused by outward sources, while Milkman is the only one who notices his shorter leg. The outside shaming for her abnormality could have worse consequences on Pilate than Milkman's internal shaming.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, on the topic of physical abnormalities, I was thinking about Jake's disability in "The Sun Also Rises." While only a few select people know about his disability, he is constantly thinking about it and it has a major influence on what happens in his life. I'm not sure exactly where I am going with this, but it is an interesting trend (Also, one could consider Antoinette's "madness" in "Wide Sargasso Sea" to be a mental disability).
Personally, I never really took much notice of Milkman's unbalanced legs. I thought maybe it was just a tactic by Morrison to make Milkman a more lifelike and relatable by exposing an imperfection in Milkman. As for Pilate, it seemed like a bigger deal because her abnormality significantly shaped the way she is today such as her marital status. Just in general, it seems that Pilate has had a bigger influence because of her difference. Perhaps a theme can be drawn from both of these, but I personally have no good ideas lmao. From this, I think the severity of both of the abnormalities is significant and it affects the two characters to different extents.
ReplyDeleteI also forgot about Milkman's abnormality. I think that part of this might be because Milkman at first cares but he stops expressing really any opinion on it. I think this is another example of how Milkman is kind of bland and often not passionate about anything. He cares about hiding his abnormality but it doesn't affect him in any strong way, the abnormality itself doesn't really affect anything just as Milkman himself doesn't really change anything
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post. Pilate's lack of a navel is brought up a lot in the book and is formative of her life's path but Milkman's disability never really affects him. This might show that while the other characters all have circumstances that they have to work around Milkman has no real obstacles in his life. Something I thought about while reading this is how Milkman's legs suddenly grow to be the same length and therefore his disability goes away. I wonder what significance, if any, there is that Milkman "outgrew" his disability but Pilate never does.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Kat’s comment above, I was also searching for a reason as to why Milkman’s physical defect goes away while Pilate’s doesn’t, and I think it’s another example of their difference in privilege. Milkman essentially gets his whole life served to him on a silver platter - he doesn’t have to work for what he receives, such as the job that his father gives him and his family’s money (thanks to his father’s obsession with wealth) which shapes his whole personal background of privilege and living the upper class life quite obliviously, or at least with naivety. Pilate, on the other hand, lives on the outskirts of town and works hard with her business in order to attain money to take care of her daughter and granddaughter. She’s the woman of the house, and her diligence proves that although she deserves what she works for, she certainly was not born into privilege like Milkman was. So maybe this whole disappearance of the physical defect is another way that Milkman is just given the easy way out without needing to do anything about it. He does not have to live with minor inconveniences, but Pilate has to endure this hardship, regardless of how much anxiety and many problems have been caused by it.
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason that milkman does not really seem to be affected too much is because Milkman has never faced any hardship. Lets say Milkman was not born into a rich family and had to work out in a field, the minor disability would start being more of a problem. Pilate has faced hardship and discrimination because of her lack of a naval. Therefore she had to cover it and be ashamed. It is only after she is surrounded by people that don't care, that she learns to embrace it. Great post Catalin!
ReplyDeleteNice post! I think the previous comments cast an interesting perspective on Milkman's privilege and Pilate's lack thereof. However, I also think it's relevant that Milkman's solution to hiding his abnormality is to "strut," which is typically associated with masculine vanity. Maybe this is taking things a little far--but I kinda took that detail as a metaphor for Milkman's problem-solving strategy. He uses his privilege and vanity and entitlement to erase his idiosyncrasies. Pilate, on the other hand, embraces hers and is a much stronger and more dynamic character as a result.
ReplyDeleteNice post. Milkman never seems to care much about anything, even when it has to do with his normality in walking. I think Morrison provides that contrast nicely: Pilate building a confidence vs Milkman being passive about his physical disability.
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