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What Is The Connection Between Milkman And Guitar In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

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As Toni Morrison’s novel “Song of Solomon” advances, Morrison frequently includes Milkman’s best friend Guitar into the scenes as an aid to the protagonist. In a myriad of ways, Guitar guides and advises Milkman before and during his journey to discover himself. Acting as a foil to milkman, the juxtaposition of these characters helps Milkman find his way to freedom. Morrison’s use of tones ranging from serious to hostile, and introduction of opposing ideas assist in conveying the thought that the path to spiritual freedom derives from enlightenment. The introduction of a rather serious tone between Milkman and Guitar occurs well into their friendship, and is used to ignite the journey for spiritual freedom. Being adults, they begin to exchange …show more content…

Tones change from serious to virulent, and conversations are replaced with arguments. Nevertheless, Guitar’s rebuttals continue to guide Milkman, and prove to be helpful words that liberate Milkman from his materialistic prison. While Milkman describes himself as, “A man the refuses to live in Montgomery, Alabama,” (187), Guitar educates Milkman by telling him, “No. A man that can’t live there. If things ever got tough, you’d melt. You’re not a serious person Milkman,” (187). Guitar shows that he has had enough of Milkman’s reckless and careless life. Milkman thinks he can just do as he wants and run away from all of his issues by buying his way out of situations. By calling Milkman out on his cowardice actions, Guitar once again teaches Milkman on how to cope with the real world. Exposing Milkman for who he is enlightens the protagonist, further expanding his spiritual freedom. Because Guitar lives like the average lower-class African American, he understands the importance of prioritizing spiritual aspects of life over the materialistic ones. Milkman on the other hand has lived a life of material and has been taught that the only important aspect of life is money and owning things. As a result, Guitar despises the mindset of Milkman, and wants to change it. However, his attitude towards it deteriorates their friendship and impacts their encounters in the …show more content…

Eventually, Guitar goes mad over the gold he thought Milkman had taken for himself, showing a reversal in ideals between the two characters. Milkman ends up being a spiritual man much like Pilate, and Guitar becomes greedy for money and material, much like Macon. As a result, when Guitar attempts to take Milkman’s life and ends up killing Pilate, Milkman faces Guitar like a man and shows no fear when facing death. In addition, Milkman tries to comfort the dying woman by singing, “Sugargirl don’t leave me here/ Cotton balls to choke me/Sugargirl don’t leave me here/ Buckra’s arms to yoke me,” (573). These actions of comforting Pilate and confronting Guitar shows he has become the complete opposite from whom he once was. He transformed from the man who never understood other people and their feelings, to the man who sung to the singing woman in order to relieve her. Then, from the man who ran away from all issues because he wasn’t a serious person, to the man who looked down the barrel of a gun to fight for his and Pilate’s life. This shows how he freed himself, and how Guitar’s subtle advice paid

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Thereby, his family becomes “a victim of social violence and racism in the hostile south of the USA” and this event leaves a deep impression in Macon’s character (Gomez R. 118). So Macon had never experienced a happy childhood and since his mother died in childbirth, he has never had somebody caring for him. Consequently, Milkman grows up without a model father or loving husband. Solid, rumbling, likely to erupt without prior notice, Macon kept each member of his family awkward with fear. His hatred of his wife glittered and sparked in every world he spoke to her.

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Milkman, who believes in justice, does not think these violent actions are vindicated and attempts to convince Guitar that his actions are unacceptable further on in their conversation. “You can’t stop them from killing us, from trying to get rid of us…I help keep the numbers the same… But when a Negro child, Negro woman, or Negro man is killed by whites and nothing is done about it by their law and their courts, this society selects a similar victim at random.” Here Guitar is bitter at the unfair treatment and defends the society’s actions by accusing whites of initiating all the violence and for failing to give equality. The death of his father in a sawmill accident painted all whites in a negative light and he desperately wants change.

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In the book Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, the book is a very good representation of the racial lens. The racial lens is a lens that has to deal with with racial slurs or sequences the character in the book encounter. Milkman is Guitar's best friend, and due to the fact that Milkman was always wealthy from birth and he lived on the other side of town, Milkman does not understand how someone could be so radicalized as Guitar is. Throughout the book, we can see how Guitar was always passionate about his race since his childhood, and how what white people have done has really affected him life. When Guitar’s father died in a brutal accident at his father’s work place, a white man came to tell him and his family and offered Guitar candy for his father's death.

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When Toni Morrison began her novel, Song of Solomon, she introduces her readers to a world in which Caucasian Americans have full power over their African American neighbors. Detailing the pessimistic treatment of African Americans, readers come to believe in the stereotypical “weak, black man,” of African Americans who allow themselves to be dominated, who see the dangers that are forced upon them and bow down to them, obliging to the torture and prejudice they face every day. This portrait of acceptance is broken, torn into a million pieces when Morrison goes in depth into the secondary character of her novel, Guitar, during the sixth chapter. In the previous 154 pages of Song of Solomon, Guitar is elucidated as simply the best friend of the main character, Milkman, as someone who is only present in the tale to listen to the problems of his friend and give knowledgeable advice. Until chapter 6, Guitar is nothing but a clear definition of “best-friend-forever,” someone who helps the main character but does nothing else, while Milkman is the reverse of him as he gets receives all of the attention of Morrison, detailing his character traits and identity.

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In Song of Solomon, written by Toni Morrison, deep concern for not only the existence and development of the black community is shown, but also for human beings in general. Questions such as “Why and how are individuals isolated from society?” , “What voice is created in isolation?”, and even “How does an individual resolve conflict between personal ethics and social morality?” strictly apply to Song of Solomon. Milkman, the protagonist, embarks on an unwitting search for his roots and ties to the black community, all while feeling isolated from society.

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Hagar, Pilate, Macon Jr., and Guitar all vie for Milkman’s commitment pulling in him to achieve their goals for him. To Milkman, his life seems to lack an identity in which to base his life’s direction and purpose, “…trying to make up his mind whether to go forward or to turn back. The decision he made would be extremely important, but the way in which he made the decision would be careless, haphazard, and uninformed.” (Morrison, 69-70). Unwilling to commit himself to any one goal, Milkman rejects these options, choosing instead to continue his aimless drifting, cutting himself off from the people who care for him and the African-American community.

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