Macon Dead

The character Macon Dead comes off as very aggressive and unsympathetic. He hates his wife he hates his sister he kicks people out of their homes when they don’t pay the rent really not a standup guy.  Deep down though his character feels guilt. Macon is not this evil spirited man deep down he is just missing what brought him joy in life. He no longer has intimate moments with his wife or feels love from his children as he drove them all away with this mean spirit he brought to the surface. Prior to his children being born, he used to have a sense of purpose he had a strong sense of success about himself. He talks about his keys and how he was able to walk up to the most successful black man in the city and have the courage to ask the Doctor if he may court his daughter. Back then Macon Dead saw the world with totally different eyes it was before the world became his prison. I say prison because it is a reoccurring idea in the novel Song of Solomon. Macon simply can’t escape his prison of hate because he needs to remain on the border between white and black. At the end of chapter one, you see his heart rise to the surface when he sits down and listens to the songs his sister and her family sing on the porch. It gives him a moment of peace in his life that he so desperately needs to keep himself sane. I think that as the story progresses we will see that Macon Dead is a man born into an unfortunate circumstance who made something for himself but lost his happiness in doing so.