Macon Dead, Jr. is Milkman’s father, and a prominent wealthy patriarch and landlord in their hometown. As a young man, Macon Jr. became interested in wealth above all else, and trades much of his humanity for money. While he does achieve financial success, he’s characterized as a cold, selfish, and uncaring man. Not only is he estranged from his warm and loving sister Pilate, he’s also an abusive husband to Ruth and a disliked man throughout the Black community in Song of Solomon. Although Milkman rebels against his father’s cruelty as a child, Macon Jr. is a strong influence in his son’s life, and in adulthood, Milkman takes after his father, learning from him how to be self-centered and unempathetic, especially toward women.
Macon Jr.’s personality is explained in part by childhood trauma. His mother died when he was young, and he and his sister Pilate were later orphaned when their father was murdered by white men. After witnessing their father’s traumatic death, the two siblings take juxtaposing paths – Macon Jr. inherits money through his wife and uses it to attribute wealth that will keep him safe and comfortable, becoming increasingly cruel and selfish, while Pilate, uninterested in money, finds her way as a winemaker and puts all her energy into being the loving matriarch of her family. The two have a falling out over their wildly contrasting values. Macon Jr. is humiliated by his sister’s poverty and unorthodox behavior, but his embarrassment is a mask for more complicated feelings: Pilate is a reminder of his past, and her open, liberated lifestyle challenges all the strict rules Macon Jr. has set in his own life to ensure his success. Every so often, Macon Jr. feels a softness for Pilate and her family that puts into stark realization just how much humanity and love are missing from his own life. It’s clear that a part of him still yearns for community, but he’s never able to make the spiritual and emotional change needed to find that community.
Macon Jr. exemplifies the tragedy of what happens when a person lets the horrors they have experienced turn them cold and unfeeling. Despite Macon Jr.’s flaws, he is sometimes an empathetic character, because his behavior is a coping mechanism. After witnessing his father brutally murdered by white men for owning land, Macon Jr. begins to believe that the accumulation of wealth and a high-status position in society is a defense against re-experiencing such horror. He thinks there is safety in separating himself – both financially, physically, and spiritually – from the Black community, and, consequently, his history, his family, and his soul. In acting “white” – having little sympathy for struggling Black people, making his living as a landlord, and participating in white status symbols like owning lakefront property – Macon Jr. thinks he can save himself from the traumas and humiliations that Black men often experience due to racism. But Macon Jr.’s perceived proximity to whiteness is a fantasy. Despite his rejection of other Black people and his financial success, Macon Jr. has never been accepted as a member of the white community.