ch3: Divinity

In chapter 3, Guitar mentions to Milkman his dislike and disgust for anything sweet. While Milkman ponders whether he can really trust "anybody who didn't like sweets," Guitar tells him the story of the man he held responsible for the death of his father and how he had brought him and his siblings candy after the accident. Guitar says that any sweets after that remind him of "dead people" and "white people" and that that makes him sick enough to throw up. I believe this is a very strong foreshadowing of what is to become of Guitar as well as a simple explanation of his feelings towards white men. He seems to hold his father's boss somewhat responsible for the death of his father and the idea that he would try to make up for it through candy simply disgusts the boy. I believe the choice of candy here is also not random, and I don't just mean the divinity made for the orphaned kids, but also the Baked Alaska earlier on. Both of them seem to be some overly-sweet candy, mainly based on sugar and egg-white (like meringue) and generally white in appearance. The color could be considered as a hint at white people (which we know Guitar dislikes) and possibly the overly-sweet taste could represent their presentable appearances that sometimes become "too sweet."

There is more to that event, however. The boss's action is so inconsiderate that it has kept Guitar off of one of the things that children love most: candy. In a way, what happened then completely destroyed his childhood: obviously the death of his father meant a much more difficult survival, but also the candy here seems to symbolize the joys and simple happiness that children always seem to have. Milkman, a boy who has been materially pampered all his life, has had that sort of childhood, but Guitar has not. And it is here precisely that they realize how much that matters. This story and the way Milkman reacts to it (even if he doesn't express that verbally) is what is different about the two boys: their age difference is one thing, but Guitar seems to be much more mature and realistic exactly because he lacks that sugar-coated childhood Milkman had and still seems to have.

Connection:
A fan art comic for the book Artemis Fowl (also available in colour) gives a very accurate idea of the main character, his realtionship with his father and somewhat of his "childhood" (he is 12 in the comic), who strongly reminds me of Guitar. After losing his father, Artemis decided to take over his shady business and even at the age of twelve he handles the family funds, goes to a high-class school and wears nothing but classy suits. So far nothing like Guitar, right? But Artemis has become that because of his father: when he was just a child his father disappeared somewhere in the North and, since then, Artemis has had to make do as his mother went insane after the incident. He has lost any semblance of a childhood after that incident, much like Guitar has; he has had to grow up much too quickly yet again because he lost his father. While Artemis lacks the hatred Guitar has for white people (he has no one to blame), both have an enormous amount of determination connected to the incidents and righting them. Both seem to also have developed a sort of survivalist intelligence created from being forced to cope on one's own at a too early an age and thus are able to control their "righteousness" to a point where it's more well-planned than vengeful. Both boys have suffered a similar dramatic loss and I believe it is the reason for two such different characters to have these traits in common.

NB: You might need to click on the picture to get the larger size where the dialogue is readable. The 'People' is a name for the fairy kind Eowin Colfer (author) writes of. Art by =vashs-angel on deviantART as shown on the page.