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Metaphor
Explanation and Analysis—Septic Sheets:
In the following example of metaphor from Chapter 8, Milkman ruminates on his memories of family and childhood, now tainted by revelations that he cannot unsee:
He’d always believed his childhood was sterile, but the knowledge Macon and Ruth had given him wrapped his memory of it in septic sheets, heavy with the odor of illness, misery, and unforgiving hearts.
Milkman describes the memory of his childhood as being "wrapped in septic sheets," indirectly equating his childhood to human waste or refuse. His parents' choice to deprive him of any normative family relation (whether through stoic reserve, incest, or untimely breastfeeding) in turn deprives Milkman of any positive childhood memories he might lay claim to. The past becomes functionally dead to him—a metaphorical continuation of the imagery of death in the "Dead" family. Death, and ghosts, appear to follow Milkman from one important life event to the next, beginning with the man who tried to "fly" and instead died on the evening of Milkman's birth.
The simile in the above passage is yet another example of Morrison exploring the effect of deprivation on the human psyche. How does a person respond when, grown into an adult, the foundational aspects of childhood are upended?
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