Guitar and the Bobcat

In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Milkman goes on a long journey to find the gold that Macon and Pilate once possessed when their father passed away. Said journey leads Milkman to the town of Shalimar, where he goes hunting with some of the village men; they end up capturing a bobcat, which holds great significance to Milkman upon deeper analyzation. In the scene pictured below, Milkman watches as the men clean the cat.

                      

 

 
Here, the readers observe a change in Morrison’s style of writing. The narration plays back and forth between Milkman’s flashback to him and Guitar’s conversation – written in bolder, italicized font – and what he sees happening in front of him. In the parts that describe the scene in front of Milkman, Morrison uses language such as, “pierced the curling hair,” “tore like gossamer,” and “carved out the rectal tube with the deft motions of a man coring an apple,” to depict the gruesome mutilation of the cat (Morrison 281-282). In doing so, the author simultaneously represents the dismemberment of Guitar’s ideals that he imposed upon Milkman, using the bobcat to symbolically represent Guitar, who was described as “a cat eyed boy” (Morrison 7). After Guitar attempts to kill him, Milkman realizes he should no longer have to endure his constant criticism and discussions regarding racial issues. Milkman comes to the conclusion that he is his own man and has no reason to fret over Guitar’s comments - which is illustrated as the men cut away at the animal. Guitar is now just as innocuous to Milkman as the bobcat: “the tongue lay in its mouth as harmless as a sandwich” (Morrison 283). Thus, Morrison uses this scene to portray Milkman’s newfound matureness as he forms opinions for himself, and the divide that occurs between two lifelong best friends as a result.