Milkman's quest for flight serves as a metaphor for his desires to transcend the limitations imposed upon him by his familial and societal background. Through Milkman's airplane ride, Morrison begins to reveal that Milkman is being held down by the people in his life, mainly his family. Milkman describes the way that “the airplane ride [exhilarates] him, [encourages] illusion and a feeling of invulnerability...in the air, away from real life, he [feels] free, but on the ground [...], the wings of all those other people’s nightmares [flap] in his face and [constrain] him” (Morrison 220). Morrison’s use of words like exhilarates and encourages, reveals Milkmans excitement for flight. By highlighting his feeling of freedom when he leaves the ground,…show more content… This forces the reader to grasp that a past history of slavery leaves a mark on the following generations as racism remains in our country post slavery. Macon’s obsession with wealth heavily influences Milkman to believe that wealth is the true way to fly. The symbol of peacocks returns with a flightless white peacock which reveals that wealth keeps Milkman from learning how to fly. When Milkman is about to rob Pilate, he notices a peacock. Milkman asks “how come it can’t fly [...]?”, to which Guitar answers, “all that jewelry weighs it down”. Like a snare of vanity. Can’t nobody fly with all that shit? Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down” (Morrison 179). The jewelry of the peacock alludes to the wealth of the Milkman. There is a comparison between the peacock and its jewelry holding him down and Milkman’s wealth holding him down. Morrison reveals a direct solution with Guitar, saying that in order to fly you must give up focusing on wealth. Morrison makes this blatant connection in order to reveal the strength wealth has in weighing people down from reaching their
