Macon
1) FACT: Macon is Milkman's father.
2) Macon exibits great irony - by prioritizing money and the freedom he sees in it, he limits himself to a specific course of action, making himself less free.
3) Ancestry creates meaning for individuals in their lives. After Macon's witness of his father's death, he had nothing left of his father but memories and ideas. Macon chose to embody those ideas - specifically ownership (and its "freedom").
4) "You own it all. All of it. You'll be free. Money is freedom, Macon. The only real freedom there is. ... It's not the money. It's you being here, taking care of this" (Morrison 163).
5) Macon's self-contradictions and efforts to own actually assist Milkman's heroic journey - Milkman chooses to leave and seek the gold, instead of taking his father's ideas for his life. Milkman can choose to seek his ancestry beyond his father, and thus his father acts as a path to further in the past than Macon ever looked.
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Macon chose to embody those ideas - specifically ownership (and its "freedom"). Do you have evidence of the "choice," or do you see that yourself? Be clear and be able to have textual evidence that HE knows.
Milkman chooses to leave and seek the gold, instead of taking his father's ideas for his life. He wants the same thing his father wants. Money. He wants it because he thinks it will free him from his past. He wants to live his past when he gets the money. How is that any different than his father?
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