Revisiting the Punch

The scene where Milkman punches Macon due to his mistreatment of Ruth is something of a turning point
within the narration. It’s the first (and, up until the second part, essentially the only) true act of defiance and
rebellion that we see. In class, we discussed this moment as representing something of a coming-of-age scene,
or even making a hero out of Milkman; after all, it’s him standing up to his father, who has controlled his identity
and life, in order to defend the defenseless. In class, we praised this moment as an expression of Milkman finally
giving some semblance of independence and seeking to protect his family.

However, in Song of Solomon, the first reading tends to be functionally useless in terms of actually understanding
the scene. As such, having gone further in the novel and learned significantly more about the context around the
punch, I decided to re-visit and re-analyze this moment.

Most immediately, following the punch scene Macon takes Milkman and explains to him his side of the story
and why Ruth infuriates him. While this speech is undoubtedly biased, it does raise the point that Milkman is
ignorant of much of the rational behind people’s actions and is not in the habit of considering other’s ideas
before he acts.

But in my opinion, Lena’s rant is the scene that most changes our view of this scene. According to Lena,
Milkman punching Macon established him not as a protector, but as a dominator. The dynamics between
Milkman and his sisters is essential to her reading of the scene; Lena and First Corinthians have spent their
entire post-Milkman lives caring for him, and he has never so much as asked them if they’re tired. Both because
of Ruth and Macon’s favoritism of Milkman and because of patriarchal influences teaching the girls that their
needs are inferior to those of the men around them, the two sisters have never once brought up their dissatisfaction with the situation, instead molding their lives around Milkman. Additionally, they’ve spent their lives in fear of Macon, knowing that they’ve never been in true control- Macon has always had the ability to throw away the ice. Their lives and choices have always been under Macon’s jurisdiction, not theirs.

To Lena, Milkman punching Macon was not a defensive action. Instead, she saw it as Milkman taking Macon’s
place in the family as the patriarch who would dominate and abuse the women in the family. This idea was
further reinforced by Milkman’s failure to exhibit any sort of concern for his sisters at any point in his life.
It is with this speech that we as readers begin to understand that Milkman’s passivity and lack of independence
has only been made possible by, as Lena puts it, pissing on his sisters.

Lena’s rant severely darkens our impression of the scene. In my opinion, we can no longer consider Milkman a
hero, since his actions only further threatened the people he was supposedly protecting. Additionally, it shows
that even when Milkman attempts to be heroic on some level, because of his lack of understanding of the world
outside of himself, he is unable to and in fact instead reinforces harmful structures.

What do you think? How do the events that take place later in the novel color our impression of the punch scene?