Butler, Camron
Milkman to me, is very much a product of his family, their past, and his surroundings. The very name Milkman is a result of his mother breast-feeding him past the societal norm. When he is a child he seems to be really confined he isn't even allowed to sit on his mother's lap when driving slowly down the street. We later learn he is bullied at school which is where he meets Guitar. And everyone in his family seems to claim to know what's best for him and what he should be. All of these are factors that could lead to Milkman's desires to fly. It's less literal and more of a metaphor. He simply wishes to leaves the confined and demanding (in terms of character not work) clutches of his family as they he just isn't having a happy childhood.
When Milkman becomes an adolescent he becomes more rebellious and tries to do his best to "fly" away from his family. He tries to accomplish this by disobeying his father and trying to be different from him, as well as no longer allowing himself to be pampered by Lena and Corinthians. His going to Pilate's house is obviously out of curiosity and direct defiance of his father however he meets Hagar, his cousin, and learns about a new way of life. The constant attention from his sisters during his youth led to Milkman being self-centered and once he starts having relations with Hagar it's once again all about him and she is yet another escape from his family.
Finally in the stage we're in now Milkman is an adult seeking out his family past, meeting all sorts of new people and ways of life, as well as seeing many different settings. This I see as Milkman really finally flying away from his home, initially to find gold thanks to orders from the man running this home. However, as his journey progresses he seems to kind of change as a person. When we first met adult Milkman he was still really selfish, stuck up, immature, and just really apathetic towards life in general (except the innocent's Guitar is killing, but not even enough to do anything more than tell him it's a futile effort). But now that's he's out having to fend for himself, where everything isn't handed to him we just don't get the same apathetic person, we see him taking more initiative and putting himself out there (I.E to prove himself to the hunters). This hunt that's now all about his families past, just like the rest of his family is now molding his being.
I'm sure there are plenty of holes and stuff in what I'm saying but I think there is still plenty of evidence for this. Additionally, I think this is a good book to end the year on as it probably the most exciting book we've read this semester but it's still plenty deep in it's meanings and brings up a lot of issues. Plus, this book was probably one of the most fun to read, especially with a lot of the off putting events that weren't even necessarily that important but you just have to stop and say "wait, what?". And despite that a number of parts can be kind of dark it never feels like the of the metamorphosis which got so sad the main character willed himself to death.
I don't see "holes" in what you're saying--this is a good assessment of the way his character progresses once the "tests" that are part of his "quest" start to kick in. His progress is ambivalent at times, like two steps forward, one step back. And the hunting scene is indeed crucial, because it's not about the hunt itself (the prey, the goal, the thing to be achieved) but about something more like self-knowledge (sitting alone in the dark in the woods, and his public self falls away and he's alone with his soul). Ironically, he becomes the prey at this point for Guitar's "hunt," but unlike when Hagar tries to kill him, he suddenly gets this intense will to live--Guitar attempting to kill him essentially brings him to life for maybe the first time in the book. He's been Dead up to this point, as his buddy always reminds him.
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