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Metaphor
Explanation and Analysis—Beer and Hagar:
In the following example of metaphor from Chapter 4, the narrator reveals a critical piece of psychological information, meditating on the nature of Hagar and Milkman's romantic relationship:
She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it’s there, because it can’t hurt, and because what difference does it make?
Milkman compares his lover, Hagar, to the "third beer," the one a person drinks not to quench their thirst, but simply because they can, because it is there. She is second best, but not to any particular person: Hagar is second-best to Milkman's own ideals, the vision he has of some imaginary future lover that will surpass all others. With this vision in mind, Milkman cannot be satisfied with anything he has in the present. He deprives himself in his current relationship out of hope that something even more wonderful lurks on the horizon. This aspect of Milkman's psychology aligns with Morrison's general musings on the devaluing of women and their beauty and value, as well as the stagnancy of human relationships.
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