Milkman's family

For pretty much all of part 1 Milkman seems pretty distant from his family (and really everyone, except Pilate and Hagar for a bit). His biggest show of emotion is hitting his father (and not even out of love for his mother, just because she seems helpless and I guess he felt like he should). His parents both tell him stories to get him on their side and he just doesn't want to hear it. He works for his father but he doesn't really seem to like it and doesn't really have any intentions of continuing it forever, however much his dad wants him to, and when Lena accuses him of being like his dad it seems that both of them understand that that's an insult. Milkman doesn't even care about Lena that much -- I guess him telling Macon about Corinthians and Porter could be caring about her, but it could also be like punching Macon -- something he thought he should do with not much real emotion behind it.

Things change so much when he leaves his family and goes to Pennsylvania. He gets so excited when someone references "his people," which struck me -- back in Michigan he seems like he's stuck between two worlds -- a lot of people don't like his family but he can't sufficiently rid himself of his upbringing to fit in with them. In Pennsylvania, suddenly there are people who like his family, and he practically swells with pride. He goes there to get gold -- his father told him about it but really he's getting it to gain independence -- but he seems to be drawn closer to his family in the process, or at least towards his father's side (I guess there just isn't a pocket of people who really love Ruth's parents or grandparents). Milkman relays his father's accomplishments, which before he didn't really seem to care about, and he "glittered in the light of their adoration and grew fierce with pride."

Is this kind of pride that Milkman can only really have when separated from Macon? The quest for the gold seems less and less promising, but I don't know if the gold would even help Milkman -- he needs some kind of purpose or fulfillment in life that he doesn't really have, and without it the gold won't really improve his life much -- hopefully he finds some other sort of realization.