Change

        When you first meet someone, your first impressions of that person are crucial to your perceptions of his or her character and personality. We are encouraged to make a strong first impression in job interviews and college interviews, as we may influence the interviewer to subconsciously rate us higher. We tend to give our first impressions of someone far too much importance, even though we realize that first impressions are often misleading. We always should remember that other people can act differently from how we expect them to behave.

        When Milkman explains to Guitar that he helped an old man load a crate out of common courtesy, Guitar automatically assumes Milkman is lying to him about shipping the gold to Virginia. Even Milkman realizes how his explanation “sounded like a lie,” as he had been criticized for his “selfishness and indifference” on multiple occasions. Milkman is recognizing how his personality is fundamentally changing; he is becoming a more selfless and genuine person. He even realizes how he was wrong to exploited others, such as how he completely disregarded Hagar and other characters as actual people.

        However, in the novel, people’s reputations and perceptions of each other are permanent and static. For example, many of the characters’ names are reflections of their past that no longer pertain to their personalities and behaviors. Milkman’s nickname no longer makes sense for him, but it remains because people are unable to move on from their first impressions of him. Guitar also was named for a rather trivial event in which he could not play a guitar he wanted to play as a child. Guitar also continues to think of sugar as a reminder of the white people who tried to console him after his father’s death, never considering how sugar could have a different and more positive meaning for others. Even though she is encouraged by Guitar to move on from her relationship with Milkman, Hagar never moves on, eventually committing suicide due to her depression and feelings of worthlessness.

        Milkman’s change is all the more profound because most of the other characters remain static despite having many blatant flaws. Milkman almost rises above the other characters as the only one to truly grow and develop over the course of the novel. However, the fact that the other characters are unable to overcome their flaws shows how difficult it can be to alter habits and lifestyles. Their communities will continue to be plagued by hardships as long as the characters live on with their faults and refuse to act selflessly with each other.