In the novel, "Song of Soloman", us readers are exposed to the topic of ownership numerous times. An argument between Milkman and Guitar that is reoccurring throughout the novel displays what an unhealthy, aggressive need for ownership and power can do to a person. As part of the Seven Days, Guitar must engage in violent acts against innocent whites in order to avenge the murders of blacks. While Milkman views this group as cruel and barbaric, as would most people, Guitar tells him that the group's actions are necessary and are done out of pure love for their people. At first, I fully believed that Guitar's motive was out of love alone. However, after we analyzed Guitar as a class, I discovered what his true motives for killing were. As a member of the black community, you would think that Guitar would be fighting solely for the freedom and power of any black. However, this is not the case. Guitar is killing innocent whites in order to gain ownership and control over black women, Milkman, etc. This is extremely ironic and came across as very confusing to me at first, but as I thought about it more, it became a more clear. Guitar is jealous of the power discrepancy between the two races, therefore when he kills whites, he gains power and takes away some power from the whites, leaving him feeling more superior. Guitar says, "Slave names don't bother me; but slave status does." (Morrison 160). This shows Guitars philosophy that if he kills more whites, then his status becomes higher and the he gains more power.
Poetry- the unit that most students dread to learn about in their English class. But why is poetry so disliked among high school students? A few of these reasons, and that I can attest for personally, are that poetry is seen as old, it can be quite difficult to understand/interpret, and we just fail to see the point of it. However, after interpreting some poems in class, my perspective began to shift (only slightly not significantly though). While I am still not the biggest fan of poetry, I am beginning to see a different side to it. Yes, poetry is all of the negative things that I stated above (at least in my opinion) but once poetry is understood, the lesson becomes that much clearer and applicable. Understanding and correctly interpreting poetry is not only a beneficial skill to have but it also opens your eyes to a deeper understanding to things that are important in terms of culture, history, and etc. For example, poetry has effectively been used to advocate and teach about i...
I like how you analysed the motives of Guitar killing the white people when you first looked at it and then after looking at it again saw a different meaning when you looked at it again. I think that Guitar killing these white people could be a mixture of the two motives. Maybe he first started out killing these white people out of love for his black people, but after doing it several times he liked the feeling of power and continued to do it to chase this feeling of power and gain ownership.
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