Song of Solomon was especially noteworthy in my opinion for the multitude of rich characters; people with intense backstories, quirky habits, and varying levels of social maturity. Not to mention they all have extraordinary names, from First Corinthians to Guitar to Sing. Pilate was easily my favorite character in Song of Solomon. She is quite intimidating, down-to-earth yet strangely mystical, and incredibly unique. Little details like the earring-box with her name, her love of oranges and soft-boiled eggs, and her knack for telling stories, really define her character. Milkman's first impressions of Pilate are also very revealing of how she stands out from the rest of his world, Milkman describing her as poor, but not dirty, her body built like that of a man's, and her voice sounding like pebbles rubbing against each other. Pilate is so different from the Dead family and all their wealth and obsession with ownership, and therefore she's an immediately appealing character to Milkman and the reader. "As they came closer and saw the brass box dangling from her ear, Milkman knew that what with the earring, the orange, and the angled black cloth, nothing--not the wisdom of his father nor the caution of the world--could keep him from her" (p36).
One of the most powerful and defining characteristics of Pilate is the fiercely protective love she has for Reba and Hagar. Love is a pretty big theme in Song of Solomon, and there are a lot of pretty intense issues surrounding it. There's Hagar starving without Milkman's affection, First Corinthians sneaking off with Porter, Ruth's uncomfortable relationship with her own father and son because of a lack of love from her husband, and then there's Pilate. Pilate's love for her family members stands out to me as being the strongest and most instinctive. It's part of who she is, and yet she doesn't let the people she loves take over her own identity, as seen in some of the other characters like Hagar. She's still very much weird, wise Pilate, but she's part of this family of women who don't let each other get hurt. The scene where Pilate confronts Reba's ex-lover with a knife is the most obvious example of Pilate's motherly defense kicking in, and it's also just a pretty hilarious scene in general, with Pilate speaking all cool and collected while the tiny drops of blood form on the man's chest. If Milkman saw that, you would think he would know not to send Hagar a thank-you note, walk off, and still expect Pilate to be cool with him...
My favorite Pilate scene however is at Hagar's funeral when Reba and Pilate start singing "Someone's been bothering my sweet sugar lumpkin." There's something very powerful about these two older women from a not well-off family, singing this song with not only grief in their hearts, but with an almost scary kind of anger and indignation: not crying, just staring at the people gathered at the funeral and shouting "mercy." Pilate's love for Hagar is such a deep motherly love it kind of makes her seem crazy, but in a very different way than Hagar herself. "Looking about at the faces of the people seated in the pews, she fastened on the first pair of eyes that were directed toward her. She nodded at the face and said, 'My baby girl.' Moving back down the aisle, she told each face turned toward her the same piece of news. 'My baby girl. That's my baby girl'" (p318). The whole scene feels very eerie and mystical as a result of these two voices shouting out with "words tossed like stones into a silent canyon" (p319). I feel like this quote does a good job of encompassing a lot of Pilate's character, being the wise and unexpected person she is, and tending to metaphorically disrupt silent canyons with stones all the time just by being her perceptive, story-telling, bone-carrying, unusual self. While other characters, particularly women (but also Guitar to an extent, maybe), experience love as something that ultimately destroys them and dictates their life, draining away everything else that they used to be because of their own obsession and societal limitations, Pilate and Reba's love for Hagar is ultimately something that builds them up and holds them together. This bond between women is really something different and powerful, and while Morrison's epigraph mentions the fathers soaring, I think the theme of family looking out for each other and of finding your place and your people is really best expressed through the mother figure of Pilate.
"Like an elephant who has just found his anger and lifts his trunk over the heads of little men who want his teeth or his hide or his amazing strength, Pilate trumpeted for the sky itself to hear, 'And she was loved!" (p319)
