Song of Solomon

Milkman tells Guitar about his father’s story so Guitar can help him get the gold. Guitar is eager to help once he believes the story. He needs money for his next assignment: seeking revenge for the deaths of four Black girls who were killed on September 15, 1963, when the KKK bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church. Guitar realizes that his future missions will most likely involve killing groups of White people “since more and more Negroes were being killed in groups” (173). He doesn’t tell Milkman any of this, and Milkman wonders if his best friend has killed anyone yet.

As they discuss their plans, they talk about what they will do with the money. Guitar lies, saying he will use the money for his family as well as luxury items, though his mind is “on the wonders of TNT” (181). He intends to spend the money on explosives to avenge the church bombing.

A few days after the church bombing, they decide to break into Pilate’s house at night while the women are sleeping. They cut down the green bag, which is attached to the ceiling with wire, and leave with it.

The book shifts from Milkman’s perspective to the perspectives of his sisters, first Corinthians and later Lena. Corinthians struggles to find a husband because of her wealth and education. Many of her potential suitors are intimidated by her credentials and desire a wife who is more comfortable with the work of climbing the social ladder. Corinthians is now in her 40s and resigned to the fact she will probably not marry. She decides to look for a teaching job but finds that her education is now out of date. She is embarrassed that the only job available is working as a maid for Miss Michael-Mary Graham, the State Poet Laureate. Despite working for Graham for two years, Corinthians disguises her job title, telling her mother that she is Graham’s “amanuensis,” or literary assistant, rather than telling her the truth: that she has been working as a maid for the past two years.

Traveling to work by bus, Corinthians notices a man who stares at her whenever he gets on the bus. Eventually, the man gives her a greeting card expressing friendship. Corinthians throws the card in the trash but ends up digging it back out. While she is embarrassed by his gesture, she realizes that no one else has shown her attention in a long time. The man is Henry Porter, the same Porter who stood drunk and screaming on Macon’s roof years ago. He and Corinthians begin to talk on the bus, which leads to Porter occasionally giving her rides home. They go for rides in the country, attend drive-in movies, and get coffee together.

Porter eventually invites Corinthians to his room. When she declines, he correctly guesses that she is ashamed of him. When she tries to blame her refusal on fear of her parents, Porter says he doesn’t “want a doll baby. I want a woman. A grown-up woman that’s not scared of her daddy” (196). He takes her home, but before she enters her house, she races back to Porter’s car and knocks on his locked door. When he doesn’t open the door, she crawls on the car and lies down on the hood, refusing to move until Porter pulls her gently back inside the car. He takes her to a place where they have sex. Porter returns her home before morning.

As Corinthians returns to the house, she overhears her brother and father talking but heads to her room before she can be seen. Macon and Milkman are arguing about the robbery. Milkman and Guitar were arrested after they left Pilate’s house. The police, along with Milkman and Guitar, soon discovered that the green sack contained not gold but bones and rocks. Macon arrived at the station and bribed the officer to release them. Pilate also arrived, lying that the bones are from her dead husband who was lynched 15 years ago and that she didn’t have the money to bury him. Milkman was shocked by her lie and by the way she transformed herself to appear submissive and small compared to the police. When they were all released, Macon drove them home, and Pilate explained that she never took the gold. She only returned to the cave because her dead father appeared to her and said she couldn’t leave the dead man there.

When Milkman looks for Guitar the next day, he sees seven men in the car. He realizes the men must be the Seven Days. The driver is Porter, the man Corinthians is dating.

A couple of days later, Lena calls Milkman to her room to talk to him. She explains that all his life, Milkman has been treated with great privilege by his family, especially the women in the family, who cared for him. She then tells Milkman that she knows he told their father about Corinthians dating Henry Porter, which resulted in Porter being evicted and Corinthians being forced to quit her job as well as forbidden to leave the house. Lena is enraged at Milkman’s power over them, which is similar to their father’s power. After calling him a “sad, pitiful, stupid, selfish, hateful man,” she kicks him out of her room (216).