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.