Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon is more than just a story about a boy's life and his oddball family. It is a story that demonstrates the social rift that existed between black and whites during this period of time in the United States. Guitar, one of the more outspoken supporters of equal rights in the book, describes white people as "unnatural". I find this description a little ironic in that this is the same attitude that many racist whites had at the time. The whole idea of slavery was based on the assumption that Africans were below those of European descent and not human. Guitar believes that all blacks should work together and try to overcome the power of the whites in society. This just shows the hypocritical nature of racists and activist groups such as the Seven Days. Guitar is so firm in his beliefs that killing innocent people is justified as long as they are white. Guitar is just the opposite of Macon Dead who desperately tries to earn the social status of a white male. Macon's selfishness and greed drives him to crave the power to control others. Macon wants the kind of respect and influence that whites have in society. This is the very thing that Guitar wishes to disable and desires a restructuring of the social hierarchy. I find it interesting that Guitar seems to be the only character in novel that is concerned with the problems of racism. Growing up in a time when the racial tension in the United States is nowhere near what is was during the time period in the book, I cannot truly understand the idea of a segregated society. However, I always figured that racism was always the biggest problems for all blacks living in the United States and yet this book shows that this was not the truth. Morrison writes the story in a way that at times it is not even notable that the majority of the characters are blacks during a time of great oppression and adversity. I feel as though this was intentional in order allow the readers to focus on the individual struggles of the characters and prevent the readers from being caught up and in a battle between black and white.