Pilate in Milkman's eyes

In Song of Soloman, Macon Dead and Ruth Foster Dead are both somewhat irrelevant in the whole story even though they are the parents of the main character Milkman. They were not really mentioned in the second part of the story because most of their actions or dialogues were used to create a setting and make the actual storyline more reasonable. The main educator for Milkman is actually his aunt Pilate because she is one of the main characters that is mentioned throughout the book and she served a major role in setting Milkman on the right path. She is portrayed as a christ figure by Morrison's use of allusions and also metaphors. Pilate always did the right thing and sacrificed herself to benefit others. An example would be when she gives up her masculine figure to please the police and free Milkman and Guitar. When Milkman said he loved her because she could fly without leaving the ground and her family he meant that she is already free from the social restrictions. When slavery was still a thing, the runaway slaves sometimes abandoned his own families to get freedom for himself, such as when Soloman ran away and left his wife to go crazy by herself. But in Pilate's case, she did not try to run away from the social restrictions, instead, she tried to uphold her own beliefs and be free from those restrictions. She completely reset her beliefs after experiencing the real world, and create new moral rules that she does not break no matter what. This is why Milkman respects Pilate so much at the end of the story. Milkman realized that Pilate was the person that was always guiding him to go on the right path. It is also Pilate's guidance that led Milkman to truly learn about his own family and discover what it really means to be free from the social restrictions.