page 45"I asked you did you play any. That why they call you Guitar?""Not cause I do play. Because I wanted to. When I was real little. So they tell me . . . It was a contest, in a store down home in Florida. I saw it when my mother took me downtown with her. I was just a baby . . . I cried for it, they said. And always asked about it."
Comments:It's interesting to note that Guitar is named after something he was unable to attain. This sums up his character pretty well. In the end, he is unable to attain the two things he wants -- the gold and revenge.
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• I agree with your comment, Mrs. Guthrie, but there are other concepts that are relatable to things Guitar could never attain. He loves to be around women just as Milkman did, but with his being part of the Days he can never get married nor have children yet he claims what he does is for love. I believe the love he feels is not the one he truly seeks. He, like most men, probably wants to have the love of a caring wife and family but he never knew that of a family because his parents left at an early age. Also, he says that everybody wants the life of a black man, the living life that is. Why would anybody want his life? He is a black man but what is there to envy about his life? He kills innocent white people to keep the race ratios equal and he claims that every white person is guilty. I don’t understand his mindset and the life he is living couldn’t possibly be enjoyable. It seems tormenting! It seems as though Guitar himself doesn’t even live the life of a black man.
Guitar is an interesting character in this novel. He shows the reader a side that is friendly, but yet he has a darker side as well. Like you said Mrs. Guthrie, Guitar himself is named after something he was unable to obtain. I disagree with you on the revenge part though because in his mindset he was able to obtain revenge by working with the Seven Days. Even though the reader clearly understands that the organization wasn't really getting back at white people, Guitar believed he was. He wasn't able to obtain the gold he wanted and I felt like it was this flaw that showed his true inner character. He thought that Milkman had the gold when Milkman clearly didn't and he was ready to give up his life for this one mistake. It shows the reader how much of a failure Guitar's life was and why to never put too much trust in one of your friends hands.
On a broad scale, this comment does accurately analyze Guitar. He obtained neither the gold nor the revenge. He couldn’t obtain the gold for the simple reason that the gold was long gone by the time Milkman arrived. Guitar’s revenge was, therefore, impossible to obtain, for Milkman had done nothing worthy of invoking his wrath, invalidating the concept of revenge. This is a situation similar to one of Guitar’s main character flaws. Guitar consistently believed his actions were justified, when, in reality, they weren’t. This, of course, was exemplified mainly in his participation with the Seven Days organization. It’s viewpoints, to which Guitar had completely subscribed, ultimately justified violence towards innocent people with a pretense that every member of the white population has the potential to do evil towards the black population. Guitar based his attitude and commitment to violence against innocents based on this assumption, which, by nature, contains the implication of uncertainty, and provides little valid justification at all. Like these outlandish and extreme assumptions, Guitar assumed there would be gold and assumed that Milkman was hiding it from him. These assumptions lead him to seek the gold and revenge, both literally and logically unobtainable things. His ultimate goal was to “make even the score” between the blacks and whites, yet he never saw that any small scale activity his organization may do would never even the figurative score he so wished to balance. On this larger scale, his goals were unobtainable as well.
Guitar was a character that really didn't know himself. I agree with Mrs. Guthrie, on he never obtained the two things he wanted most. His obsession with the gold is a empty space, because it was long gone before Milkman even got to it. This puts his revenge in the wrong place. He can't be mad at Milkman for something he never had. So it is impossible to obtain something that you never had in the first place. The fact is Guitar can not possibly go any lower than he is now. There is nothing to be proud of in his life. As Anna said, he kills innocent white people and he claims that every white person is guilty. Guitar, even at the end of the book cannot obtain the two things he wants the most.
Pride Snow
Guitar is just like every other person that has ever walked the earth. He has an identity, someone he is and someone he wants to be. So much of a person’s image, personality, and drive is what they love doing, what they take part in, and what they’ve experienced in the past. Those three things build people. On the other hand, though, so much of a person’s life is constructed around the things that escape them; the person they want to be, and the things they never had a chance to be part of. The biggest influences on a person’s life is not their experiences, but their missed opportunities; the haunting memories that tilt and turn our desires. Austin said that Guitar doesn’t really know himself, but does anyone really know themselves that well? Furthermore, the most important part of knowing who you are is knowing what you want, what your heart desires, which is something that Guitar obviously does know. He wants the gold and revenge, and yet it eludes him. However, people always want the things that elude them more so than the things that are easy to have and obtain. I think Guitar built himself up to be somewhat of a story, and deep down, I think he finds a sense of comfort in the fact that he can never achieve the things he wants, whether he knows it or not. After all, if you were to achieve them, then what would be left?
Guitar's character is very interesting throughout the novel and shows the best and worst in people. He is a person that looks innocent and harmless on the surface but hides a dark secret. He is a mass murderer part of the seven days but remains loyal to his friend Milkman. I also agree with Mrs. Guthrie's comment. He was never able to really attain anything that he wanted in life. He never got his revenge or gold. I also think he wanted equality for his race and respect but the way he tried to achieve this was misguided and even made it worse for his race.
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