On Friendship

Of the many things that disturbed me while I was reading Song of Solomon was the failing friendship between Milkman and Guitar. Realizing Guitar wanted to kill Milkman was something that left me very sad and uncomfortable(like many things in this book). I mean here we have two grown adults who've been friends for around 20 years wanting to kill each other, cause real harm to each other. In the book we can see that there was definitely a lot of trust between these two character in the past. Milkman trusted Guitar to come steal Pilate's gold and stayed with him on the days that Hagar would come to kill him. Guitar even told milkman about the seven days. What can cause such a long and deeply rooted relationship to crumble so badly. It certainly can't be thier different lifestyles, because Milkman and Guitar had different lifestyles through the entirely of their friendship.  I think it's safe to assume that a significant factor in the falling apart of their friendship was the difference in their opinion of the civil rights movement. However, I think it is possible to remain, maybe not as close as before, friends even after a falling out because of different opinions. You can certainly repress any desire to suddenly kill. I think that the very drastic falling out between Milkman and Guitar was mainly caused by a lot of pent up frustration guitar had with milkman and the system in general. I think that Toni Morrison is trying to show us that even some of the things that we have held constant in our life for almost the entirety of it are subject to damage and change,  just like the dynamic of the relationship between Milkman and Guitar. We can't every take anything for granted, because ultimately nothing is 100 percent permanent.