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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Milkman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Stalking and Surveillance
The Personal vs. the Political
Gossip and Rumors
Gender Norms
Summary
Analysis
An unnamed narrator begins her story saying, “The day Somebody McSomebody put a gun to my breast and called me a cat and threatened to shoot me was the same day the milkman died.” The narrator does not care that the milkman is dead, killed by a state hit squad, but she knows other people do. Furthermore, she knows that other people think she was having an affair with the milkman because of a rumor that likely originated from first brother-in-law. The rumor is especially scandalous because the narrator is 18, while the milkman is 41 and married.
Milkman is an unusual novel in many ways. Two significant idiosyncrasies appear in this opening section. First, almost no one in the novel has a traditional name. Instead, the narrator refers to them by their familial relation to her or by the nickname she has given them. Second, Milkman gives away its major plot points in its opening sentence, albeit in a confusing manner that will not fully make sense until the novel’s conclusion.
Themes
In reality, the narrator does not like the milkman and does not want to be associated with him. She also strongly dislikes first brother-in-law, who is 23 years older than her and has had inappropriate sexual conversations with her when other people were not around since she was 12. The narrator stopped visiting first brother-in-law and eldest sister (his wife) after six years of harassment. However, as soon as she no longer had to deal with first brother-in-law, the milkman came into her life.
Sexual predation is a common theme in the novel, and the milkman and first brother-in-law are the primary perpetrators. As such, the narrator pushes one sexual predator out of her life, only to have another unexpectedly come into it. This underscores the pervasiveness of gender-based violence and intimidation in middle sister’s community. Notably, the distance and age between the narrator and the milkman is the same as the age gap between the narrator and first brother-in-law.
Themes
The narrator first encountered the milkman while walking along the side of the road, reading Ivanhoe. On that day, the milkman pulls up next to her in his car and asks the narrator if she would like a ride. Twice, the narrator rejects his offer, so he gives her a smile and goes on his way. It is after this initial interaction that rumors begin to spread. After hearing the rumor, eldest sister chastises the narrator for spending time with a much older man.
Ivanhoe is a famous historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, which takes place during the Crusades. Its thematic content in no way parallels that of Milkman, which is significant for reasons that will become clear later on. Meanwhile, this first interaction between the narrator and the milkman appears innocuous, though the rumors that quickly spread around town following the encounter suggest otherwise.
Themes
The narrator tells eldest sister the rumor is false and is annoyed that she would criticize the narrator given the state of her own marriage. In addition to his inappropriate behavior with the narrator, first brother-in-law also regularly has affairs, which the narrator assumes eldest sister must know about. After talking to eldest sister, the narrator tries to ignore the rumors; her small town has always been full of gossip, and she knows she has not done anything wrong.
Rumors and gossip are an important part of the social fabric of the narrator’s town, though they may well do more harm than good. The rumors feel like a harmless form of entertainment for those spreading them, but they have an impact on middle sister’s life, even though she tries to ignore them.
Themes
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The second time the narrator encounters the milkman, she is running alone in a park. Seemingly out of nowhere, the milkman runs up next to her and the two of them jog side by side for some time. The narrator is not comfortable with the milkman next to her, but he does not pose an immediate threat, and she does not want to be considered rude by moving away from him. She feels like the milkman is making a move on her and violating her privacy in some way, but she does not have any evidence that she can explicitly point to.
Here, although the milkman is not overtly menacing, his behavior is far more invasive than his first interaction with the narrator. He appears to deliberately have gone out of his way to find the narrator and invade her private running time. Although the narrator senses something is wrong with this interaction, she lets her social condition override her judgment and decides not to say anything.
Themes
While the narrator and the milkman are running side by side, she hears someone hiding in some shrubbery take a picture of them. She assumes the person taking the picture is monitoring the milkman, who is a renouncer. The milkman acts like he did not hear the picture being taken, though the narrator knows he must have heard it. After running together for some time, the milkman slows down to a walking speed, clearly exhausted. The narrator slows down and walks next to him, not wanting to appear rude.
Renouncer is a term for someone who was part of the Irish Republican Army or another similar organization. In the Troubles, renouncers were primarily Irish Catholics who opposed the British occupation of Northern Ireland. They wanted the British out of Northern Ireland altogether, so the country could rejoin the Republic of Ireland. Renouncers held the power in many Irish Catholic communities during the Troubles, including the one middle sister lives in (which closely resembles Belfast).
Themes
Slowing down causes the narrator to reflect on the gender roles in Northern Ireland. It is the 1970s and women are expected to do as men tell them and never insult their masculinity. There are some men who do not take gender roles so seriously, such as the narrator’s maybe-boyfriend. The narrator calls him maybe-boyfriend because they dated for a while and now only see each other casually. The narrator wishes they could see each other seriously again, but maybe-boyfriend thinks their last serious relationship turned them both crazy.
The narrator is critical toward gender expectations in her community, though she also tends to give in to social pressure because she does not want to appear rude or abnormal. There is a common thread throughout the novel where the narrator expresses her admiration for other people who do not play by the same social rules (such as maybe-boyfriend in this case), but she has a hard time breaking the rules herself, knowing the danger such behavior could pose to her safety.
Themes
After this brief mental diversion, the narrator returns her focus to the milkman. They walk together for some time, and then the milkman takes his leave as suddenly as he appeared. The narrator continues her run and thinks about her uneasy encounter with the milkman. While distracted in thought, she slips on an erotic magazine that someone left in the park, which causes her to fall down.
While the narrator worries about socially acceptable ways to behave, the milkman continues to flout all standards of common decency, which leaves the narrator feeling unsettled. Meanwhile, the erotic magazine is a symbolic confirmation that the milkman has a sexual interest in the narrator. It also suggests that sexual harassment and unwanted exposure to sexual content are widespread experiences in middle sister’s community, particularly for women and girls. Middle sister, for instance, experiences both while undergoing the innocent activity of going for a walk.
Themes
