Milkman and Guitar has a long history in this book. Milkman and Guitar grew together, were always the best of friends and stood up for each other. Yet overtime, the relationship grew sour as the ending depicts both of them going at it, leading to what readers believe as a death of one of them, or even maybe both. Yet this development appears strange. Let's dive deeper
Milkman grew up in a life of luxury, although hated by many other people in his community for his wealth accumulated by his father. Grown up to flaunt his wealth, he is surround by envy and expensive objects. Just like his dad, the dead family appears to not only wish to be the richest but also let other people know that they are indeed the richest people. This idea of being concern about his own image is seen constantly through the early parts of the book, such as his "rebellion" from his father's figure by changing how he looked, how he acted and "everything he dared." Yet, throughout the book we see him struggle with actually finding his identity and his place in society. This idea of him being the only thing that matter was a huge problem to his character, as it causes him to make many of the people to go "crazy" as he would describe. Yet, by only calling other people crazy, he failed to see his own flaws and his own flawed thinking.
Ironically, his best friends was starkly different. Growing up in an opposite environment, Guitar was always poor. His situation was caused after his father was killed in a sawmill accident, something Guitar never let up. This fueled his hatred of white people until he found his own place in society, something Milkman failed to find time and time again. His hardship in life as his driving factor caused him to join the 7 days. Even though he does not have much money, he understands what is going on more as he isn't as concerned about how he looks. As he puts it, he is a lot more grown up than Milkman is.
I believe that this was the critical break point between these two friends. Although they have been together a lot and been through a lot. A symbol of their friendship can be seen when Guitar lets Milkman in on the secret. Yet, the amount of differences they have in their lives created a hole that could not be filled. Their differences are huge, as Guitar believes that Milkman is trying to prevent him from doing what he is meant to do and Milkman is trying to find his purpose, blind to the blunders he is committing. As the book goes on, it ends at their fight to the death, symbolic as the end shows how completely different they are. This is truly a toxic, but loving, relationship.
I like how Guitar thinks hes mature partly because he works with the Seven Days. Obviously its hard to say that his reasoning for being with the group is illegitimate, but wouldn't it be more mature to not join a group like that, like Milkman doesn't? Milkman definitely has reason to think Guitar is questionable.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting breakdown of Guitar and Milkman's relationship. I think that it makes both of them sympathetic, more than I would have realized on my own, and highlights what really drives them apart. And I also question the legitimacy of either of the character's definition of mature, as neither of them really seem to have their heads out of the sand yet until the very end when Milkman has his revelation.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting analysis of how the different backgrounds and lifestyles of Milkman and Guitar led to them occupying different roles in society, which eventually led to their breaking point. I also wonder what the end of the book would have been like if Morrison ended up writing a few more pages and told us if one or both of them had died.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wouldn't chalk it up to the friendship ending as Guitar acts more mature than Milkman. I felt that given all the differences between the two, they've just gotten to a breaking point in their friendship. Guitar wants to be more involved in the current events while Milkman needs to find himself.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't necessarily say that the huge gap in differences between them is what separates them, it's definitely a factor, but I also think that it played a huge role in why they were best friends in the first place. It seems very clear to me that each wanted something that the other had. The grass is always greener on the other side as they say.
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