page 140[Ruth Dead speaking] "Nobody lives forever, Pilate.""Don't?""Of course not.""Nobody?""Of course, nobody.""I don't see why not.""Death is as natural as life.""Ain't nothing natural about death. It's the most unnatural thing they is.""You think people should live forever?""Some people. Yeah.""Who's to decide? Which ones should live and which ones shouldn't?""The people themselves. Some folks want to live forever. Some don't. I believe they decide on it anyway. People die when they want to and if they want to. Don't nobody have to die if they don't want to."
Questions:
1) Did Pilate want to die at the end of the novel? Above she says that people decide when they want to die. Did Guitar give her much of a choice?
2) Does Milkman have a choice? Is the decision he made based on what he wanted or what he knew was inevitable?
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• Even though the injury Pilate received from Guitar was fatal, I don’t think Pilate minded dying at that moment. She had discovered her true ancestry and found the answers to questions that she had sought for years. Shalimar was her true home—she “blended in with the population like a stick of butter in a churn.” Once she found her father and buried him properly at his home, she felt an immense sense of relief. I don’t think she wanted to die but she didn’t mind it because all the questions that had puzzled her had finally been answered. Also, I find it very adequate that she died where her people are.
• Milkman had a choice and he chose the one he thought was right. He chose his path and finally found out who he was when he began learning about his family. He became a different person and understood what it meant to be selfless and compassionate. Once he learned the truth of his family and its origins in Shalimar, his egotistical and arrogant personality disappeared and in its place stood an understanding, independent man. He realized what Solomon meant by being able to fly, and his dream that was crushed at age four when he was told people couldn’t fly was reborn. Being able to fly now meant escaping restrictions and being liberated from them. Milkman’s decision to take on Guitar was what he wanted. He knew the man hunt would continue and if it were to stop that their friendship would never be the same. So as Guitar told Milkman years back, a man should be able to choose what to die for. Milkman did—he chose to die for his family origins, the truth—and he flew.
Although Guitar did not give Pilate a choice of whether she was ready to die or not, I believe she was ready to go. Throughout the book, the box earring symbolized Pilate. It symbolized her unknown family history that she so deeply cared to know about. When she laid the earring on top of the grave it symbolized the end of her wondering and ultimately the end of Pilate.
Milkman, unlike Pilate had a choice. He could have chosen to keep on running from Guitar, from death, but that is not what he wanted. Milkman's entire life consisted of trying to find himself and belong. He achieved this goal trough the knowledge of his family history. It made him feel special, like someone that mattered, and most importantly happy. He was content with what his life amounted to and was ready to die now.
1. Even though Guitar didn't really give her a choice, I believe Pilate was ready to go. Like Meredith said the ripping of the box earring from Pilate's lobe was the death of Pilate. It was the only thing that reminded her of the man she cared the most about, her father. Also the first thing she did when death was knocking on her door was she laughed, an unnatural thing to do when dying. This showed me that she was ready to go because Pilate believed that people died when they wanted to, almost as if death was a planned occurrence, which is exactly what it seems to be here. From the singing to the burial of her father everything seemed to be exactly how Pilate wanted it to be.
2. Milkman had a choice and he chose what he felt was right. Milkman seems to evolve in this book from a selfish man with no path in life to a magnanimous, respectful individual. After finding out the truth on his family and understanding what kind of lives some of his family members led, Milkman found people he could look up to. I believe that because Milkman lived with Macon so long, some of Macon's characteristics started to carry over to Milkman. Finally being able to get out on his own, Milkman chose the kind of lifestyle he wanted to live and forgot about everything else and did what he felt was right, to take on Guitar..
Pride Snow
1) Being complacent with death, in my opinion, isn’t so much about being happy with dying, but about being happy with the life you’ve lived, just for a second. Being ready to die is for one instant, knowing that all of the jumbled up pieces of life had a reason. It’s seeing the bigger picture, realizing why this and that happened. Sometimes people can know they’re ready to die for years. Some don’t realize it until the second they take their last breath. I think Pilate was ready for death in the depths of her souls; in her subconscious. I don’t think if someone had asked her if she wanted to die that she would have said yes, but I think that as she took her last breath, she realized that this life made sense, in some weird, insanely justified way. In that split second of realization she was ready to die; accepting of her fate. She wanted to go away, happy with the things she had found at last and the individual she had transformed into. Guitar didn’t give her a choice, when it came to Pilate’s death, in the sense that it’s not like he asked for her permission. However, everything in life is a choice. Who knows what could’ve happened if something Pilate said to him, Milkman, or another character, would’ve altered what happened in the end. In that sense, Guitar very much gave her a choice. Every word someone says affects their life. Maybe if Pilate had done something different in the past, her fate would’ve been spared.
2) Like I said before, everything in life is a choice. Fate is something people make up in order to have something to blame their quality of life on. It’s all in the hands of the individual. Milkman used his past experiences, reasoning, and an innate desire to find out who he was in order to guide him in making the right choice, which, in his case, was pursuing Guitar. The fact that the events he participated in were most likely inevitable may have swayed his decision, but all in all, he made a choice.
At the end of the novel, Pilate was ready to die. As Anna said, she found all of the answers she had been looking for: where she had come from, what happened to her father, etc. She had closure. Although she didn't ask Guitar to kill her, she really had nothing keeping her there. Since she died, she could be reunited with her father and Hagar.
Milkman definitely has a choice. He figured out where he came for and where he fit into his family history. He was a changed man, as Anna said. He wanted to follow in Solomon's footsteps and fly. He was no longer confined to his name, his class, or anything else. He was his own man. He chose to end his life and friendship with Guitar. He decided that he belonged in the sky, that he wanted to fly, and so he did.
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