Song of Solomon Socratic Seminar Discussion
Thomas Szasz says, “ Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse.” In the book Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison tells the story during the time where whites could kill blacks and get away with it. She paints us a picture of how it was back then when she says, “A young Negro boy had been found stomped to death in Sunflower County, Mississippi. There were no questions asked about who stomped him- his murderers had boasted freely- and there were no questions about the motive.” Does this sound fair?
The next thing Toni Morrison does is that she kind of foreshadows what is going to happen because after hearing the news of the boy that was stomped to death everyone in the barbershop starts arguing about whether it will make the front page but Guitar yells, “What the fuck is the difference? A kid is stomped and you standin round fussin about whether some cracker put in the paper. He stomped , ain't he? Dead, ain't he? cause he whistled at some Scarlett O’Hara cunt.” From this gesture we can assume that in the future Guitar will stand up to this injustice.
Later on in the book when asked about his secret whereabouts, Guitar reveals to Milkman that he is a part of a secret society called the Seven Days. “ The organization, composed of seven black men each of whom is assigned a day of the week, kill white people at random every time that a black person is murdered and the assailants are left unpunished.The Seven Days try to make each revenge killing similar to the original violence against the black victim. If he was hanged, for example, they hang their next victim. These revenge killings are performed on the same day of the week as the original murders of the black victims.” You might find yourself asking if Guitar and six other men can come together to kill whites as a way to avenge the death of blacks, then why couldn’t they get together to protest against the laws that kept blacks in subordinate positions.
They used whites killing innocent
The next thing Toni Morrison does is that she kind of foreshadows what is going to happen because after hearing the news of the boy that was stomped to death everyone in the barbershop starts arguing about whether it will make the front page but Guitar yells, “What the fuck is the difference? A kid is stomped and you standin round fussin about whether some cracker put in the paper. He stomped , ain't he? Dead, ain't he? cause he whistled at some Scarlett O’Hara cunt.” From this gesture we can assume that in the future Guitar will stand up to this injustice.
Later on in the book when asked about his secret whereabouts, Guitar reveals to Milkman that he is a part of a secret society called the Seven Days. “ The organization, composed of seven black men each of whom is assigned a day of the week, kill white people at random every time that a black person is murdered and the assailants are left unpunished.The Seven Days try to make each revenge killing similar to the original violence against the black victim. If he was hanged, for example, they hang their next victim. These revenge killings are performed on the same day of the week as the original murders of the black victims.” You might find yourself asking if Guitar and six other men can come together to kill whites as a way to avenge the death of blacks, then why couldn’t they get together to protest against the laws that kept blacks in subordinate positions.
They used whites killing innocent