Incantatory, mythic, psychological - flying
Themes:
Wounds inflicted on succeeding generations from the murder of Macon's father's by Whites
Pilate carves out independent life style - 3 generations of women under one roof
Spoiling Hagar
Women who love too much
Growing tired of a woman and "tossing her aside like a wad of gum that loses its flavor"
Incompatibility of married couple - Ruth and Macon
Visitations with the Dead - Pilate with her father and Ruth's trips to her father's graveyard
Knowing your people
tyrannical father
racial retribution
striving for independence - gold
finding those who you feel comfortable with - akin to-
bildungs roman
importance of friendship
Work of Ethnography - finding roots: unknown Michigan town, Dansville, PA, Shalimar, VA
Brueghel Icarus - opening scene introduces panorama of characters and themes: Guitar, Ruth pregnant with Milkshake, 2 sisters - discrimination at the hospital, suicide/flying (means of freedom and escape
Characters: Milkshake, Macon Dead, Ruth, Corinthians, Magdelaine, Guitar, Pilate, Reba, Hagar.
Importance of names -
Favorite scenes:
*fight on porch of general store in Shalimar
* hunting scene where Guitar tries to strangle Milkshake who loses breath and almost dies
* Hagar's death - pre-death shopping spree - selling diamond ring for Hagar - white standard of beauty
*Guitar and Milkman visit Pilate for the first time - soft-boiled egg, picking
raspberries off the branch, Milkshake falls in love with Hagar, story of the earring, the way the women eat, sing, description of the house.
*Corinthians spreads herself across the hood of Porter's car.
* Milkshake meets Circe and then undertakes mythic trip to cave - sheds the suit and shoes, vestiges of his pampered life
*Danville with the Pastor
*Sweet - love scene, washing each other in the tub
*Hagar tries to kill Milkshake at Guitar's place - Guitar's talk with Hagar about her self worth
* Guitar tells about the Seven Days group
*Lena reprimands Milkshake for ruining things for Corinthian
*Pilate shows up at the police station and gets Milkshake and Guitar released with
her story.
*Ambiguous ending
*Death of Macon's father, Jake - shot five feet in the air off wire fence where he'd sat trying to save his land.
*Children in circle sing of Solomon who flew back to Africa
*Milkshake punches father and pushes him into radiator
Who is the hero of the book? Is Milkshake a hero or an antihero and at what point does he become
heroic?
Is Pilate the heroine?
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