The birds circling over Pilate’s body after she is killed by Guitar’s bullet that was meant for Milkman (Page 335-336), proposes that physical death is not the end of her existence. The swooping down of one bird to take Pilate’s snuffbox up to the sky indicates that her name will live on and because she has so long clutched her name as a crucial part of her identity, it is clear that she too will live on. Even as Pilate’s body lies still on the ground, Milkman himself takes flight. Having learned the story of his heritage he is now fully alive. We do not know whose death will result from Milkman’s leap at Guitar, but Morrison suggests that whether Milkman kills or is killed doesn’t really matter, since Milkman, now graced with a rich sense of his identity, will live on after death just as Pilate will and just as Solomon has in the song that bears his
The birds circling over Pilate’s body after she is killed by Guitar’s bullet that was meant for Milkman (Page 335-336), proposes that physical death is not the end of her existence. The swooping down of one bird to take Pilate’s snuffbox up to the sky indicates that her name will live on and because she has so long clutched her name as a crucial part of her identity, it is clear that she too will live on. Even as Pilate’s body lies still on the ground, Milkman himself takes flight. Having learned the story of his heritage he is now fully alive. We do not know whose death will result from Milkman’s leap at Guitar, but Morrison suggests that whether Milkman kills or is killed doesn’t really matter, since Milkman, now graced with a rich sense of his identity, will live on after death just as Pilate will and just as Solomon has in the song that bears his