Pilate is a woman who well represents the core values of feminism. Throughout the novel Song of Solomon, she is perceived as an odd and very unconventional character. This is by no means in a negative light, as she not only guides Milkman, but is also a guide for the women around her and even female readers. Strong and empowering, Pilate was not the average woman for the 1900s.
After the rough years putting up with other people, and the rejection by almost all men, Pilate finally realizes the time for change. "First off, she cut her hair" (Morrison 149) an action that goes against all societal norms. Hair, a very common symbol of beauty, wealth, and women, is rejected by the blade in Pilate's hand. "She didn't want to think about it anymore"; she would no longer allow societies standards make or break her own image. Pilate in giving up "all interest in table manners [and] hygiene" again disowns all that should make a woman or define a "good" person. Although being unkempt is not necessarily a desired trait among anybody, it shows the power in Pilate, to take to her own beliefs and stand by them, not allowing any type of ridicule, by even her own brother at times to change the person she creates for herself. An illustration of how Pilate decides to show her own feminist values by casting off all things that are most expected of a woman.
The list could go on, by the clothes she wears to the ways she acts and presents herself. Pilate's decisions to act the way she does are a way to demonstrate that a woman is not a material good nor a prize to be won like what the many man choose to believe about them. If not for her bellybutton, or rather lack thereof, she would have never come to the realizations that most others in her time still live without knowledge that society's definition of a woman hardly defines what a woman could and should be at all.
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