The role of names is a huge one in Song of Solomon. During one class discussion, someone mentioned how almost everything has two different names. Beginning with the most important street in the book, Mains Avenue, which was known as Doctor Street, and is now known as Not Doctor Street, encapsulates this multi-naming very well. All of the different names tell a story about the time and context in which they were named. This goes for the other multi-layered names in the book too.
Milkman’s real name is Macon Dead III, and his name signifies a huge event in his life: being found while Ruth was nursing him. Everyone knows him by this, yet only a few people know why he's actually called Milkman. But since he’s been stuck with this name, he’s stuck with the past. This is a huge theme in this book, but that’s a topic for another post. Milkman seems glad to have this name in some ways, because it helps to differentiate him from Macon Dead II, but at the same time, I’m sure he’d rather not be called Milkman… Milkman’s sisters also have two names each, although they are not quite as important. Magdalene is Magdalene called Lena or just Lena, and First Corinthians is just Corinthians. Ruth doesn’t really have another name, unless you count “Dr. Foster’s Daughter” which you might want to, considering how much a part of her identity her father was…
Not only do we find the names in the book important, but the characters do as well. Pilate’s name is so important to her that she puts the piece of paper through which her father has named her and puts it into an earring that she’s worn for at least sixty years. It seems to me that Pilate doesn’t read much symbolism into her name, but that it’s just important to her to always remember it. Perhaps simply as a memento from her father. Milkman, on the other hand, frequently uses his name in a symbolic way. “My name’s Macon. I’m already dead.” He recognizes the…is it humor..? in this naming, and finds that it applies to many situations in his life. Almost everyone in his life has tried to murder him at one point, the only exception being Pilate, and having the word dead his name is pretty important. In the section we’ve just read, chapters ten, eleven, and twelve, we see a transformation in Milkman, where he realizes that he’s basically been dead for his whole life. He seems the pun in this, and when Guitar is trying to kill him, he is basically reborn at a point where he could have been dead the next second.
Naming seems to be a way for Morrison to get across aspects of characters, not only by what their names are, but how the characters feel towards their names. I think it’s interesting how the names always relate to the past in some way, and hold some common thread. For the Macon Deads I-III, they all have the same name. And for Pilate, First Corinthians, and Magdalene called Lena, they were chosen at random from the bible. Not to mention, the name Solomon has become very important, although it has only been hinted at thus far in chapter twelve. I’m looking forward to seeing how that name runs its course in the rest of the book.
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