When Milkman is talking to Mr. Solomon at his store, he notices hostility being directed towards him. As he asks about getting a place to stay or fixing his car, he gets a sense of having "struck a wrong note" while speaking and turns heads when he says he may have to buy a new car. The narrator momentarily breaks away from Milkman's point of view to tell the reader what the perspective of the men in the shop is. They see Milkman as a man spoiled with wealth, a man who shares their skin color but has the heart of a white man, and a man whose own presence demeans their existence. The line "His manner, his clothes were reminders
that they had no crops of their own and no land to speak of
either" illustrates their feelings towards Milkman well. These negative feelings set the stage for the fight between Saul and Milkman.
Prior to the fight Milkman had been thinking about how friendly the blacks he'd encountered in the South were. During the hunt Milkman's thoughts turn back to this subject before he's assaulted by Guitar. In comparison to the people he'd met elsewhere, the ones in Shalimar were "savages." However the extent of Milkman's interactions in the rest of Virginia were brief ones that lacked substance--giving money to people for goods or services, and then being off on his way without expecting to see them again. Milkman does doubt whether these people were friendly, or if they "were just curious and amused," but he then notes that "he hadn't stayed in any place long enough to find out." In a way this reflects Milkman's behavior towards Hagar and other people in his life. His relationship with Hagar is broken off when he thinks she wants to marry him, and his relationships with other women end when sex isn't the only thing they want anymore. Lena accuses Milkman of never asking how she and Corinthians were doing when they taken care of him as a baby. It seems like Milkman's only close, positive, and genuine relationship is with Guitar and that starts to change when he reprimands Milkman for not being "serious." One of the reasons the men in Solomon's store resent Milkman is for not telling his name or asking what theirs were. Considering Milkman's attitude and behavior towards the people in his hometown and those in Virginia, he is unaware of what other's needs are and avoids recognizing that, preferring transactions that don't mean anything.
Milkman starts recognizing his problem after denouncing the residents of Shalimar. He thinks, "Apparently he thought he deserved only to be loved—
from a distance, though—and given what he wanted. And in
return he would…what? Pleasant? Generous? Maybe all he
was really saying was: I am not responsible for your pain;
share your happiness with me but not your unhappiness." This observation correlates with how Milkman's interacted with Hagar, his sisters, and in a very loose sense the people he's met in Virginia. He expects positive things but doesn't expect himself to give anything too substantial in return.
