Is the seven days an organization of love? That is how Guitar describes it. In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Milkman’s best friend Guitar joins an organization called the seven days. The seven days consists of seven men each representing one day of the week. If a murder of a black person by a white person goes unpunished, the person assigned the day of the week that the murder happened on is responsible for avenging that death by killing an innocent white person in an equivalent way.
Guitar justifies killing innocent white people as revenge by saying that no white person is truly innocent because they are all capable of murdering a black person if put in the right situation. Therefore, in his mind, are the white people he kills indirectly responsible for the black persons murder? Guitar’s argument also extends to the unfailing innocence of black people. He declares white people to be unnatural, and that’s the reason they are capable of racism, thus making black people natural and incapable of racism.
When Guitar reveals his secret to Milkman, Milkman identifies many flaws with this justification. One being that he thinks many white people can be good and have done things to oppose racism. Guitar makes the claim that white people are unnatural, which gives him the right to kill them as retribution, however when Milkman asks him if Eleanor Roosevelt would help kill a black person, he says he isn’t sure about the women. He then recalls how some white women have held their babies up to watch lynchings, as a way to prove white women aren’t innocent either. I think this is the first hint we see of Guitar’s rationalization falling away, because he has to convince himself first before being sure of all white women being guilty.
I think this supports Milkman’s point that enough killing will make a person able to kill anyone. Basically, Guitar wasn’t sure about if Eleanor Roosevelt would do the thing he claims makes his killing of white people justified, but then seems to reason killing someone like her by grouping her with pictures of white women he has seen at lynchings. Guitar was convincing himself anyway possible to justify killing innocent people, which I think is especially shown when he becomes intent on killing four young white girls in retribution for the murder of four young black girls. When Guitar first joined the Seven Days, I wonder if he understood that he might also have to kill children, and I wonder if that would change his initial decision. After being in the Seven Days and becoming accustomed to the killing involved, vindicating his actions probably became easier, ultimately making the assignment of killing children easier.
This makes his statement that his actions stem from love especially confusing. It’s very hard to understand how Guitar could associate killing innocent children with love. I also wonder how far he would be able to go with this justification. At one point in chapter 6, Milkman asks Guitar why the Seven Days is kept a secret if it would give black people hope. Milkman also says that the Seven Days isn’t changing his own life, and probably isn’t changing many black people’s lives. We do, however, see that Milkman may not have the best understanding of racism when he is surprised by the lack of action after the death of Macon Dead I, so would he be the best judge of whether or not Guitar’s actions do change the lives of black people? It's hard to understand why Guitar thinks he is acting out of love, because the only people it seems to directly effect are the people he killed, and their families. Guitar’s actions seem like they could quickly spiral and ultimately may not have the effect he thinks they do, and I'm curious how they would appear differently from his perspective versus Milkman’s. How does Guitar think his actions effect black people?
