After reading Paul Beatty’s
the White Boy Shuffle, I am left with
many emotions. Firstly, the absurdity of the entire situation strikes me. It’s
hard for it not to; the idea of the United States government dropping an atomic
bomb on its entire African American population is reasonably hard to believe. Quickly
looking past the unlikeliness of the situation, it is not difficult at all to
perhaps tone down the un-believability of the entire novel and try to make
sense of the basic idea portrayed in the ending: the willingness to die for one’s
cause. I think that with the more relatable, everyday style that this book is
written in, it is not difficult at all to put oneself in the narrator’s shoes.
With the other novels that we have read so far, the main characters have always
had something a bit off about them: Bigger Thomas’s futility to naturalism, the
Invisible Man’s incredible Naivety. However, as I personally find for many
books, when the main character is of a similar age to me, and in a similar
time, I can better imagine myself in their position, experiencing what they are
experiencing. Through this, I believe that this book does the best to get its
point across. However, the way that I read it, the moral of the story is still
a bit outdated.
The way that I see it,
the book’s final, parting-shot moral is a way to emphasize on and condemn the lethargy
of the African American community. In Gunnar’s life, we see an overlying
discontent with the world that he and his friends are living in, as seen by the
disgruntled comment about “driving while black” being a bad thing. However, I
do believe that since the book’s 1996 publication, the world has changed quite
a bit. I think that nowadays, there is a much larger focus on social justice in
society, with more and more people joining the fight for equal rights and
treatment for all. This can be seen in organizations such as Black Lives
Matter, and the protests that they hold. The way I see it, the White Boy
Shuffle isn’t really telling black readers that they should kill themselves to
combat racism. Instead, it is saying in a similar way to Kendrick Lamar’s “Another
Nigga,” that the African American people needed unite, set aside their gang
colors, and unify to stop the enemy from killing them. It is saying that until
people were willing to fight against the power system that was oppressing them,
nothing would happen. And I do believe that now, 20 years later, this is
beginning to happen.
Gunnar's decision and actions at the end of the novel are very shocking considering he was once the funny narrator that we came to love. It seems as though he has only been placed in this situation with this astonishing mindset because of Scoby's death, but if we look closer we can see how hints of this attitude of Gunnar's have been present all throughout the book, from his indifference about the last free throws in the basketball game to his nonchalance regarding Dexter Waverly's suicide.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the whole book has a kind of surrealness to it that at first was kind of hard to process, but by the end of the book I really liked it. The mass-suicide idea, definitely something that would not happen in real life, was probably the most disturbing of these ideas, but it also worked with the book in a lot of ways.
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy to think that this tension between blacks and cops has been going on for over 50 years and, although it is true that we are seeing a lot more change now with more movements protecting black lives. I think that the beginning started a while back and this struggle will continue to happen. Cracking down on the system and having one side winning will only create more tension with people having unfinished battles to settle. I think that both sides really need to understand one another in order for the unrest to stop.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to think about how the novel managed to protest the social issues. Beatty decided that he would make his world surreal and in that way make certain points. This made it difficult for me to wrap my head around the problems being talked about, and it also makes it harder to compare it to the present. Like you said, the absurdity is striking, but for me, after much processing, it still managed to get the point across.
ReplyDeleteI agree that nowadays the world is progressing towards a more equal environment but I think that the moral of "The White Boy Shuffle" still holds true. Despite how much time has passed since the book was published, there are still may strides that need to be taken in order for there to be completely equal rights. Most importantly our new president elect isn't exactly occupied with the ideas of equality.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jan^ it seems the complacency or "lethargy" you mention has developed into more social action, but we have yet to see what kind of federal regression Trump and his advisors will bring
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how Beatty uses humor and a sort of exaggerated reality to explore injustice in this novel. Beatty uses a different tone to discuss participation in social justice matters and lack thereof than the average reader is used to. This lends itself to different comments being made on such a subject. I think Beatty's critique of the world is applicable before and after the time of the book's publication.
ReplyDeleteI think the mass suicide idea was always kind of dramatic and a bit out of proportion from an outside point of view (an 'inside' perspective, like Gunnar's, might've thought through the suicide differently, and honestly I don't think you can ever understand what's going on inside a person's head when they're going through something considerably soul-crushing). But while I understand the nature of your point, I'm not sure twenty years later THAT much is different. The Mike Brown/Eric Garner/etc rulings prove that the justice systems in power still protect police murderers over justice for black victims and their families, even if the population is now more mobilized towards protesting police brutality than in 1994.
ReplyDelete