The novel is told by an un-named third-person limited-omniscient narrator
with a male point of view. The story moves freely between time periods
and thoughts of different characters.
Fiction, bildungsroman, and adventure.
1) Examine the issue of naming in the novel. How does it connect
to African American history and how does Morrison deal with that history?
2) Analyze the characters of the older generation of African-American
women in the novel, especially Ruth Foster and Pilate, but also taking
into account Mrs. Baines. What function do they serve in establishing
the novel's themes?
3) Trace the course of the relationship between Guitar Baines
and Milkman Dead from its beginnings to its ending. How can this relationship
be read as emblematic of African-American history?
4) Map the town in Michigan where Milkman grows up--the distinctions
between Milkman's neighborhood on Not Doctor Street and Southside and
Honore Island.
5) Trace Milkman's search for family origins in his connections
with the people in the south whom he encounters.
6) Examine the issue of internalized racism in a character analysis
of Hagar Dead. Concentrate especially on her last scene when she searches
through town for the right cosmetics and clothing to attract Milkman.
7) Examine the issue of death in the novel. How is it regarded
by various characters?
8) Analyze the descriptions of Lincoln's Heaven. How does the
farm and what happens to it connect with the history of the Reconstruction
period?
9) Trace Milkman's change over the course of the novel from self-involvement
to other-focused. What prompts this change?
10) Trace Pilate's progress from the time she was left in the
cave by her brother to the time meets him again in Michigan.
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