Murder/Death in "Song of Solomon"
page 100
When some particularly nasty murder was reported, the Negroes said it was
Winnie Ruth. They said that because Winnie Ruth was white and so were the
victims. It was their way of explaining what they believed was white
madness -- crimes planned and executed in a truly lunatic manner against
total strangers. Such murders could only be committed by a fellow lunatic
of the race and Winnie Ruth Judd fit the description. They believed firmly
that members of their own race killed one another for good reasons:
violation of another's turf (a man is found with somebody else's wife);
refusal to observe the laws of hospitality (a man reaches into a friend's
pot of mustards and snatches out the meat); or verbal insults impugnating
their virility, honesty, humanity, and mental health. More important, they
believed the crimes were committed in the heat of passion: anger,
jealousy, loss of face, and so on. Bizarre killings amused them, unless of
course the victim was one of their own.
Questions:
1) How is killing someone because they insult your honesty justifiable?
If someone insulted your humanity and then you killed them, wouldn't
their insult have been right on target?
2) Is Guitar's murder of Pilate (and his indirect murder of Milkman)
justifiable, following the above code?
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