Disparity In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

In the novel “Song of Solomon,” Morrison tackles many aspects of racial disparity by relating events in the novel to occurrences in history. A few parallels can be seen within Guitar’s and Milkman’s discussion in chapter six. In their discussion, Milkman recently discovers Guitar’s involvement in a radical group called “The Seven Days.” The group’s purpose is to seek vengeance for unjust, violent acts carried out by whites. Additional, parallels can be made between Guitar and the radical civil rights activist Malcolm-X. The Seven Days is a fictitious group that only pertains to the context of the novel, however, the events they seek to retribution for are real incidents in history. As seen by the reader later in the chapter, Guitar tries to raise the necessary funds to extract revenge on a church bombing that killed four African-American children. This bombing is an illustration of the 16th Street Baptist church bombing, which took place in Birmingham, Alabama on the 15th of September,

However, not all people sought revenge after these types of events. Milkman represents the group of conservative people by saying that “they’re [the killers are] crazy” (155). This is common term used throughout history throws out an evidence regarding one's true motives. Those who felt passionately about seeking revenge more closely follow Guitar’s ideology, while less radical people seem to align more with Milkman. Morrison's depiction of the two polarized groups seems to leave out a key group: those who feel moderately. Not everyone fell under the two categories represented by Guitar and Milkman, in fact many were caught in between this power struggle. Morrison’s depiction of what Guitar and Milkman stand for is an accurate representation of what many polarized African-Americans were feeling in the midst of events regarding racial