The son of Solomon, father of Pilate and Macon Dead II, and husband to Sing. Though his real name is Jake, his legal name is Macon Dead I, because when he told a Freedman’s Bureau official that his father was dead and lived in Macon, the official mistakenly wrote “Dead, Macon” as his name. Macon Dead I was a respected man in his Virginia community, but a powerful white family, the Butlers, murdered him and took his land when Macon Dead II was a child.
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Jake Character Timeline in Song of Solomon
The timeline below shows where the character Jake appears in Song of Solomon. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 2
Milkman notices that Macon seems more relaxed and easy-going than usual. He asks how Macon’s father died. Macon remembers that his father, who was illiterate, was tricked into signing a contract...
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Part 2, Chapter 10
...the four days for the trip, he meets other men who remember Macon Dead and Macon’s father as powerful, successful men who overcame racism and poverty. They’re delighted to hear that Macon...
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...dogs and preserve the house. Before Milkman leaves, Circe tells him Macon’s father’s real name: Jake.
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Part 2, Chapter 12
...son of Solomon,” and Milkman wonders if the song is a reference to his grandfather, Jake. The song continues, “Heddy took him to a red man’s house,” which Milkman concludes must...
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...interprets the rest of the children’s song, realizing that they’re singing about his own family. Jake, his grandfather, was the son of a man named Solomon, who seems to have loved...
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Part 2, Chapter 14
Milkman asks Susan about Jake, and Susan tells him that Jake married Sing, and may have traveled to Boston with...
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...Heddy; he learns that Heddy was Susan’s grandmother, an Indian woman, who took care of Jake after Jake’s father mysteriously disappeared. Heddy later gave birth to Susan’s father, Crowell. Susan had...
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...to Africa, leaving behind him a wife and twenty-one children. Though he tried to take Jake with him, the young boy was knocked from his arms by some branches and Solomon...
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Milkman pieces together Susan’s information and his own. Jake and Sing must have traveled to Boston but taken a wrong turn (no doubt because...
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Milkman asks if Jake was enslaved; Susan reminds him that no one in her own family was enslaved, but...
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Part 2, Chapter 15
...fly off and leave a body.” He shouts from the basement to Pilate upstairs that Jake wasn’t talking about the dead body in the cave; he was talking about his own...
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...an outcropping of two rocks from which Solomon began his flight to Africa, to bury Jake. After they’ve finished, Milkman wants to put a rock or a cross on the grave,...
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