Out of Tune
“and black women, they want your whole self. love, they call it, and understanding”
Guitar Bains is a pretty loaded character. Personally, I had a high opinion of him until it was revealed that he was a murderer of innocent white people, but even then I thought that his actions were a little bit justifiable.
As time went on though, he got pretty sketchy. When we talked about his name in class, one of the only non-biblical names in the book, and what it symbolized, i realized that Guitar is a symbol for the ineffectiveness of violence. Everyone knows MLK was against violence, opting for civil disobedience instead. Everyone also knows that this was more or less effective in granting people of color the rights they deserved. The reasoning behind the movement’s success is likely that white people around the country were seeing the violent acts being committed against innocent people of color and thinking to themselves “wow, this is not what America is about.”
Violence against white people would completely obliterate that revelation. Guitar seemed to miss that fact. He believed that the way to solidarity in the African American community was violence towards whites. He even called it love for the community, when in reality it was hatred for the way they were treated. The irony of this comes in chapter ten, when Guitar talks about how “everyone wants the life of a black man”. when he talks about women calling it love and understanding, he fails to realize that he has used that same justification for committing acts of violence against white people. Guitar does not want equality. He wants to own white people in the same way that white people owned slaves. He wants to see the same treatment that his community endured to be endured by white people. As his name suggests, he knows this will never be the case, and uses his hatred of that fact as justification for his actions, which then leads to him turning on his own best friend and stating his ownership of a black woman.
Through the first part of the book, Milkman was understood to be exactly like a white man: wealthy, materialistic, and uncaring. However, what about Guitar? In my opinion, his attack on Milkman marks the moment when he became completely assimilated. His violence did not aid the African American community, it set them back even further.
Guitar Bains is a pretty loaded character. Personally, I had a high opinion of him until it was revealed that he was a murderer of innocent white people, but even then I thought that his actions were a little bit justifiable.
As time went on though, he got pretty sketchy. When we talked about his name in class, one of the only non-biblical names in the book, and what it symbolized, i realized that Guitar is a symbol for the ineffectiveness of violence. Everyone knows MLK was against violence, opting for civil disobedience instead. Everyone also knows that this was more or less effective in granting people of color the rights they deserved. The reasoning behind the movement’s success is likely that white people around the country were seeing the violent acts being committed against innocent people of color and thinking to themselves “wow, this is not what America is about.”
Violence against white people would completely obliterate that revelation. Guitar seemed to miss that fact. He believed that the way to solidarity in the African American community was violence towards whites. He even called it love for the community, when in reality it was hatred for the way they were treated. The irony of this comes in chapter ten, when Guitar talks about how “everyone wants the life of a black man”. when he talks about women calling it love and understanding, he fails to realize that he has used that same justification for committing acts of violence against white people. Guitar does not want equality. He wants to own white people in the same way that white people owned slaves. He wants to see the same treatment that his community endured to be endured by white people. As his name suggests, he knows this will never be the case, and uses his hatred of that fact as justification for his actions, which then leads to him turning on his own best friend and stating his ownership of a black woman.
Through the first part of the book, Milkman was understood to be exactly like a white man: wealthy, materialistic, and uncaring. However, what about Guitar? In my opinion, his attack on Milkman marks the moment when he became completely assimilated. His violence did not aid the African American community, it set them back even further.
Comments
Post a Comment