Reflective Blog for Chapters 3-6

After the ending of the third chapter, I found that I was actually hooked into reading Song of Solomon: a reaction that I was not expecting to have. I was picturing this book being written in the 70's and thus thought it would be extremely boring. It has become quite the opposite for me, even though it took me five hours to read an annotate.

I appreciate the theme of this book because I can completely relate to it. Milkman is living in the magnificent and intimidating shadow of his father, Macon Dead II, and is struggling to find his own identity. As he grows up--which he admits takes him until his early thirties to do so--the book says that he isn't embracing life, how everything in life just seems boring to him. I do not like the fact that he's doing silly, useless things to occupy his time, like keeping the job he despises, sleeping with multiple partners whilst still being "with" Hagar, and treating his family members as though they don't deserve to have their own personalities.
I was proud, however, of Milkman when he stands up to his father and knocks him down when he hits Ruth. It was unsettling to hear Macon's side of the story of Ruth's father's death and I was starting to waver sides until in the next chapter I found out that Macon basically killed her father by throwing out the medicine keeping him alive. Basically, things eventually go back to normal with Macon being the bad guy and Ruth the victim.
I was happy to see some physical magical realism in the fifth chapter when Pilate talks about her life growing up. Apparently she not only talks to her father's ghost, but others' too.
Another exciting things was when connections with the Biblical names of the characters started to click and match with their namesakes. It was heartbreaking, what happened with Hagar, and what was even more sad was that I saw it coming. When she got dumped by Milkman, I could tell she wanted revenge, but I didn't think she'd try to kill him...multiple times. I felt so sorry for her as a character. Is sucks that with a name like Hagar, the events of her Biblical namesake's history would somewhat thread itself with hers. I suppose we're to expect that with the rest of the characters.
I was again shocked to find out that the racism during that era was incredibly violent and horrible, even little children not being spared. I do not agree with the whole concept of the Seven Days because I somewhat believe in the saying "Why kill people who kill people to prove that killing people is wrong?" A question that is itching at me is that even though Guitar said he didn't like killing, he does it anyway to keep the population ratios stable. I wonder if he'll end up killing Milkman in the classic best friend-turned-evil plot, because he certainly gets enough practice?
There was revelation given by Guitar about Mr. Smith, the insurance agent, and why he jumped off the roof. He told Milkman that he had committed suicide because killing the innocent, even white innocence, became too much for him to handle. It's sad that Guitar and the rest of his race became so hard against the whites, even though they did deserve it. There was just too much inhumanity going on during that and the previous centuries.