Monsieur Milkman

As I've been reading Songs of Solomon, a huge similarity between the characters Milkman and Monsieur Meursault from The Stranger dawned upon me. They both carry the same mentality which trivializes life. They both act according to physical pleasures and have this idea of the meaninglessness of life nested into their heads. In fact, both portray their disdain for emotional matters: Meursault believes that marriage does not symbolize anything of importance; Milkman similarly believes that his life is just an extension of the present rather than looking to the future.

The two characters' nearly identical ideals help morph my impressions of Songs of Solomon as I continue reading. Meursault is generally admired until the incident at the beach, which brings havoc and shows that society does not accept humans without what is considered normal emotions. At this point, The Stranger ends, and the reader becomes incapable of exploring the circumstances further. On the other hand, Milkman faces "society" with his beliefs (as evident by his situation with Hagar) in the middle of the novel. As we progress further and further into Songs of Solomon, we see Milkman who is forced to face the things which he regarded as unimportant. Perhaps a similar situation would have arose in The Stranger if Albert Camus had not ended his novel at that point.

From my interpretation of The Stranger, I strongly believe that Meursault held on to his belief that emotional matters are of less importance. In Songs of Solomon, I think that Milkman is headed in an opposite direction. As Milkman continues to face more and more consequences of his life, he will change in unforeseen ways (which happens in all coming of age novels). Assuming this is true, I predict that Milkman will learn to settle down and become more aware of those he interacts with (for example, Lena and Corinthians).