When we discussed the ending of White Boy Shuffle in class, I realized that the topics we were covering consistently overlapped with the themes of the poem, "America", we talked about previously. One main discussion topic was the aspect of perspective and how the eagle looked free and appeared to be flying but in reality was trapped and unable to be independent. Similarly, Gunnar seems to have everything anyone would want (Literary genius, fame, prodigy basketball player, etc.) but still feels confined to the suffocating views of the White people. Because of this, he feels that the only course of action left is to drop a bomb on the entire Black population as a final Black movement. Another interesting aspect is the idea of dependency. For example, in order for the eagle to even appear like it's flying, someone, presumably a white person, would have to flip the coin off their finger. In White Man Shuffle, most of Gunnar's unwanted fame and glory stems from the attention of white spectators who use him as a source of their entertainment and "generosity". I think the author does an amazing job of showcasing this sense of inevitability and traps their reader into the exact perspective that Gunnar fights to get rid of at the end, which is a sense of loss and disappointment of Gunnar's waste of his talents.
This novel has kept me hooked throughout each chapter and I feel that it's fitting, in regard to the theme of amusing yet uncomfortable irony, that the solution the genius Gunnar Kaufman comes up with to finally free the Blacks from the views of society is such a simple one, yet no one left on the Earth would be able to understand.
It's hard to even describe Gunnar's "solution" as something he "comes up with," since the whole thing seems pretty spontaneous and unplanned: he challenges the crowd at the rally that they aren't "ready to die" for South Africa, then asks rhetorically what he's ready to die for, which leads him around to conclude "nothing," he "just wants to die." When he's informed that people have been following his "lead," he passively accepts it and invites their suicide poems. The whole thing just snowballs from there, and Gunnar is sort of in the structural position of "leader" while not actually "leading" anything.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that sometimes fame can be like a cage. When everybody knows you they are constantly expecting you to behave and act a certain way and be a certain thing that it is hard to just sit down and do what you want to do. With Gunnar, it isn't like he wanted to go to the basketball camp, the exotic white school, or even college, but it was forced on him. The fact that all the things he liked to do, people just used to improve their image, load their pockets, and feed their excitement showed that they didn't actually care about what he wanted to do. Even with progressive white people, they think they know what is best for black people and that ends up just as bad as racism.
ReplyDeleteI think that the parallels between the two works are very well warranted. Gunnar is "flipped" by white society to make it seem like he is flying, giving him basketball and poetry recognition. But Gunnar is not truly free, as all of those talents are used to entertain the white people. The comparison here is uncanny and I am glad you pointed it out, as it is an interesting parallel to think about.
ReplyDeleteVery Interesting analysis, I think that juxtaposition of freedom and captivity is very prominent in both works. Gunnar seems to have the perfect life in many ways, but he feels almost trapped by the expectation of perfection. Similarly the Eagle on the Coin clearly represents freedom, but It can never be free, while it is stuck on the coin representing freedom.
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