The Implications of Guitar’s Ethical Choices in Song of Solomon

Abstract

Critics of Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon focus mainly on the novel’s hero, Milkman, Aunt Pilate, and Milkman’s father, Macon. Guitar, another character in the novel, has received little attention from critics. From the perspective of ethical literary criticism, Guitar is a character with ethical implications. This study analyzes two major ethical choices made by Guitar and the enlightenment obtained from them. Guitar’s first major ethical choice, driven by radical black nationalist sentiments, is his violent counterattack against white people. His second significant choice, driven by free and irrational will, is the killing of his best friend. Guitar evolves from a nationalist who thinks he loves black folk to an ethical criminal who kills his best friend. His two major ethical choices have profound moral connotations. Morrison, with her usual detached narration, presents the ethical tragedy of Guitar, guiding readers to reflect on blacks’ strategy of pursuing racial justice through retaliatory violence against whites, and extending readers’ focus from inter-racial violence to intra-racial violence. It can be said that this novel transcends race and expresses Morrison’s reflections and worries about the moral situation of black people and even that of the entire human race.