Guitar
Bains was formerly one of my preferred characters in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon; however, after chapter
six, this drastically changed. After much goading from Milkman, Guitar finally revealed
why he has seemed so elusive to Milkman in the recent past. He went on this
elaborate rant about how all white people are bad or “unnatural,” which I found
to be highly insulting and absolutely ridiculous, as he has no evidence to
support his argument whatsoever. His plan with “the Seven Days,” is basically
repetition of the ancient law of retaliation, more commonly referred to with
the expression “an eye for an eye.” But at least with that code, the eye that
was taken in retaliation was the same eye that did the taking of the first;
that I can see a little bit of logic in. Guitar’s concentration on the “numbers”
seems absolutely preposterous. One, a group of seven men in one small town is
not going to make a significant difference when it comes to the numbers of
blacks and whites throughout the world. Two, if they really cared about their
cause they would spread it around because he only way to have success with
something such as this is to have widespread support. Three, sweeping
statements such as “every one of them is a potential nigger-killer” (155) and “Hitler’s
the most natural white man in the world” (155) definitely need evidence to be
even considered (which they don’t have). Even though Guitar’s actions and words
anger me, I think that Toni Morrison used this character and his feelings as a
hyperbole to emphasize the resentment that many black people had, and maybe
still have, against whites.
I agree that the whole section about Guitar and the Seven Days was strange and surprising, but I think I have figured out what they are meant to represent in the novel. They are the personification of the indignant rage that the black community possessed during these racially charged times. Imagine being a black man or woman and seeing the self admitted killers of Emmet Till live there life in freedom. How could you not want to go out and enact revenge, sensical or not? Of course people in real life would realize that one white man is not the next and would hold there rage in, but the anger would always simmer below the surface unsatisfied. The Seven Days are Morrison's tools to demonstrate these emotions to the reader. Where the story line of the Days will go I don't know but they could easily become antagonists, killing for pleasure rather than duty, or there actions may be justified. Either way I am excited to read more.
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