Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Murder and Death in SONG OF SOLOMON
page 331Perhaps that is what all human relationships boiled down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it?"Everybody wants a black man's life."Yeah. And black men were not excluded. With two exceptions, everybody [Milkman] was close to seemed to prefer him out of this life. And the two exceptions were both women, both black, both old. From the beginning, his mother and Pilate had fought for his life, and he had never so much as made either of them a cup of tea.Would you save my life or would you take it? Guitar was exceptional. To both questions he could answer yes.
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Milkman is reacting to the many attempts on his life by dealing in absolutes. The notion that relationships are based around the sole want for life and death is a silly one, one that surpasses all consideration of emotion and value in life, but one that sums up many of Milkman’s relationships very well. For some, Milkman was an inconvenience, one better removed from life. Milkman feels that own father tried to remove him from the world before he had even set foot in it. Hagar and Guitar had also made attempts to remove his life. A stranger at Solomon’s shop even attempted to knife Milkman. Such occurrences make apparent the origin of Milkman’s solemn and extreme perceptions, but do not prove them right. Milkman does not take into account that only the strongest of emotion causes the want for his death, and that the majority of people he meets do not want him dead. Dislike, fear, respect, and a plethora of other emotions between want for life and want for death are not taken into account by his analysis. Milkman is, however, correct in his assertion that Guitar would both save his life and take it. Guitar’s attempts on Milkman’s life prove the latter correct, but Guitar also considers Milkman a friend and gives him warnings such as his message to Solomon the shopkeeper. Guitar does not want to see Milkman dead and would like to save his life, but at the same time knows that for the reasons that only he can see clearly, he must kill Milkman.
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