Pilate and Macon

When Macon tells Milkman the story from when he and Pilate were younger, I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. After hearing the story about Ruth and her father just after he had died from both Ruth's and Macon's perspectives, I tried to take everything that Macon said with a grain of salt; while there was surely some truth in his story about Ruth, there was also probably some lies. Knowing this, I think that it's impossible to say that Macon is being totally honest with Milkman when he tells him the story about Pilate.

I can't wrap my mind around Macon's accusation, especially since Pilate has been portrayed as a character who cares very little for wealth. I don't know how she would be so comfortable with giving away so many things while secretly holding onto a bag of gold that she stole as a child. This portrayal of Pilate as selfish conflicts with the person that Milkman has gotten to know. The version of Pilate that he knows is strict, but loving, and, according to Ruth, she saved him from his father. Milkman almost seems like a small child in this section because of how easily he's influenced by his father and Guitar.

Of course, in chapter nine, the real story comes out after Milkman and Guitar are caught and brought to the police station. I wasn't all that surprised when they found that the bag wasn't full of rocks, and instead was filled with rocks and the body of the man that Macon and Pilate has killed. However, since Pilate didn't have the gold, and Macon claimed that it had disappeared when he had searched the cave after a few days, the question of what actually happened to the gold can be added to the long list of questions that Milkman has about his family.

When Guitar and Milkman break into Pilate's house to steal the bag, I was almost hoping that they would get caught so that Pilate could explain her side of the story to Milkman. Pilate is, without any doubt, my favorite character in Song of Solomon, which is obviously giving my perspective here a huge bias, but I just don't see how Macon's story could be totally true.