The End of an Adventure

           I just finished Reading the book Song of Solomon, a truly peculiar and interesting novel that touched various controversial topics and allowed us to see Morrison’s insight on them through the characters in the book. I found it surprising to see that there was really no approach to the ending of the book. What I mean is that most books start leading their story towards an ending in a smooth and progressive manner. Song of Solomon, on the contrary, ends very abruptly with Milkman leaping towards Guitar. This can be observed when the narrator states, “Without wiping away the tears, taking a deep breath, or even bending his knees-he leaped. As fleet and bright as a lodestar he wheeled toward Guitar and it did not matter which one of them would give up his ghost in the killing arms of his brother” (p. 337). It is not very clear which one of them got killed or if both were killed, or even if none were killed. This ambiguity at the end of the novel allows the reader to imagine the rest of the story and ponder about its ending.

            In addition, I found it very interesting to observe the way in which Morrison is able to relate the ending of the book to the beginning. She connects Milkman’s final leap towards Guitar with Mr. Smith’s suicidal attempt in the beginning of the novel. This concludes the whole story by making the reader remember the beginning of the book and how the whole story started. I believe this is very important because it makes the reader reflect upon the whole story, not just the ending. Morrison’s objective in writing this novel is to use Milkman’s life as a symbol for the life of many other African-Americans who have had to struggle and face numerous challenges. Throughout the protagonist’s life, Morrison is able to cover many situations and critic certain aspects of society that she believes have shaped not only culture, but many individuals.

 

Prejudice in Race

 

          One of the most important concepts that has marked the history of race has been the prejudice that people have with people of different races. In the past, African Americans were treated as inferior and were all considered to be the same. Whites did not see any difference between two African American individuals. This is criticized in the video “Race: The Power of an Illusion” when it shows, with evidence, that there is more difference among people of the same race than there is among people of different races. This completely disproves the argument that all African Americans are identical. In addition, it is important to highlight a very influential idea that was pointed out in this video which was that the concept of a Black individual varies depending of the country in which the individual is. The concept of a Black individual has been greatly generalized with the American view; however, this is not necessarily true in all cases, since different cultures view concepts differently.

            In the portion of Song of Solomon that I read, I found it very interesting to observe a situation that related to this topic. This can be seen when it is said, “They stop anybody they want to. They saw you was colored, that’s all. And they’re looking for the Negro that killed that boy” (p. 204). In this case, one can clearly see the stereotype that African Americans have in that community. The police just assumes that the killer is black and therefore starts stopping and searching any African American that he sees. These type of thoughts are guided solely by the external differences among Blacks and Whites, but they are omitting the internal differences, which in many cases are the most important. Finally, it is crucial to point out that Blacks are treated as a whole in the community, disregarding the differences inside their genes and personality and this is exactly what the book and the video are criticizing and trying to make their audiences aware of.

 

     

    

Guitar: Lured by Money

            Throughout most of the last pages of the book, the narrator implies that Guitar undertook the killing job in the organization as a way to have revenge against the White race, which supposedly had as its primary objective to annihilate the African American race. However, I found it very interesting to observe that this is corroborated by Guitar in his conversations with Milkman, since he openly declares his hatred toward whites and states the pleasure he has in killing them. In addition to the theme of racism being presented here, it is crucial to highlight the fact that Guitar is the character with the most radical thoughts in the entire book. This is pointed out when the narrator states, “Guitar had placed himself willingly and eagerly in a life cause that would always provide him with a proximity to knife-cold terror” (p. 177). Guitar had chosen his way of life. He chose to present an active and violent resistance against the oppressions made by whites.

            In addition, I found the content of the last sentence I read surprising. It states, “As he listened to him go over each detail of meals, clothes, tombstones, he wondered if Guitar simply could not resist the lure of something he had never had-money” (p. 181). This represents a completely different theory about the factors that led Guitar to choose the life he chose. According to this, Guitar had been a man with few financial resources, which means that when he saw the opportunity to start gaining some of his own money in a way that made him feel he was doing the right thing, he had no doubt that that was going to be his life. It is important to mention that now we know that Guitar is ambitious and likes to acquire lots of wealth, no matter if that means having to kill others.