about milkman matter are 10 points in English
Answers
As Milkman stumbles through a forest headed toward a "big crumbling house," he recalls his airplane flight from Michigan to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then his bus ride from Pittsburgh to Danville. He also relives his last conversation with Guitar before leaving home and the series of events that prompted his hunt for Pilate's gold.
Upon arriving in Danville, Milkman encounters an old, oddly dressed black man, who tells Milkman that Reverend Cooper can help him locate Circe, Macon and Pilate's caregiver, who, Milkman hopes, will lead him to the cave containing Pilate's gold.
At Reverend Cooper's, Milkman receives a warm welcome. He learns that the reverend remembers Macon and Pilate as the children of the town's local hero, Macon Dead, Sr., the creator of Lincoln's Heaven, and that Reverend Cooper's father made Pilate's brass earring. Milkman meets many of the town's old black men and listens to their stories of when they were young and personally knew Milkman's father and grandfather. As he listens to these stories, Milkman begins to feel as if something is missing from his life. For the first time, he is able to visualize his father as a young man and to envision the loving relationships that once existed between his father and aunt and between his father and grandfather. Sensing that the men are hungry for news of Macon and Pilate, Milkman indulges them with his own stories, embellishing the truth to satisfy their curiosity and preserve their cherished memories of Macon Dead, Sr., and his two children.
When Milkman tells Reverend Cooper that he wants to visit the site of his grandfather's farm, named Lincoln's Heaven, the reverend's thirteen-year-old nephew (called "Nephew") drives Milkman to it, from which Milkman sets out for the old Butler mansion, the house where Circe worked and where she hid Macon and Pilate after their father was killed — ironically, we learn, by the Butlers.
Arriving at the crumbling mansion, Milkman enters through the front door and is assaulted by the stench of animals and decay. Suddenly the stench is replaced by the sweet smell of ginger, and he sees an old woman at the top of a staircase. The woman is Circe, whom Reverend Cooper honestly led Milkman to believe was dead. Circe, mistaking Milkman for his father, embraces him, but when Milkman identifies himself as Macon's son, Circe quickly loses interest in him. Fortunately, Milkman persuades her to tell him the stories of his grandfather's murder and of Macon and Pilate's escape from Montour County.
Through his conversation with Circe, who is living in the mansion with a pack of German hunting dogs, Milkman learns about his father's parents: Macon Dead, Sr., whose real name was Jake, and his part-Indian wife, Sing. Circe tells him that she has continued to live in the mansion even after the death of the last Butler family member, who committed suicide after she spent all of the family wealth rather than live as a poor white woman. Circe is intentionally letting the dogs destroy the mansion.
Circe gives Milkman directions to Hunter's Cave, where he secretly hopes to find the gold. However, when Milkman finally locates the cave, he discovers that there is no gold. Realizing that Nephew, who was to drive him back to Reverend Cooper's, has already come and gone because of how late it is, Milkman hitches a ride back to the Danville bus depot. Hungry, exhausted, and disillusioned, he heads for the freight yard to say goodbye to Reverend Cooper, but the reverend has already left for the day. Then, continuing on his hunt for the gold, he boards a Greyhound bus to Virginia, convinced that Pilate left the gold in Virginia before heading to Michigan.
Analysis
The fairy tale beginning of this chapter,
including references to "Hansel and Gretel" and "There Was An Old
Woman," emphasizes the illusory world in which Milkman still lives.
Completely caught up in finding Pilate's gold, he is "oblivious" to the
"wood life" through which he struggles. Only during the airplane ride to
Pittsburgh has Milkman ever felt a "feeling of invulnerability."
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