Driven to the Point of Suicide

            Earlier this week in class, we discussed the heartbreaking conclusion of The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty. By the end of the novel, my favorite characters had already committed suicide or were preparing to do so. The novel provides an unconventional look at suicide as a way to beat the system set up by white society. This idea interested me, and after the class discussion I could not stop thinking about how Gunnar transitioned from the happy skater at the beginning of the novel to the man who somehow found himself the leader of a mass suicide.

            The ending of the novel was a shock even though the mass suicide was disclosed in the prologue of the novel. A major factor in this was the success of the characters Beatty develops. Nicholas Scoby and Gunnar Kaufman gifted both athletically and intellectually. Scoby is incredibly talented at basketball, he cannot miss a shot even if he tries. Gunnar has an innate skill for basketball. As a seventh grader, he dunks the ball in his first time playing to the astonishment of all the other players. Scoby’s intelligence is apparent in the first passage we are introduced to him when we are informed that “Scoby was a straight-A student” (66). Gunnar has a knack for coming up with impressive commentaries on society on the spot. At a Shakespearean soliloquy finals that Scoby and Gunnar attend, Gunnar criticizes the way the other contestants and judges stereotyped and belittled their talent before they started their presentation. When Gunnar attends the predominantly white high school and plays a basketball game against Scoby’s team he ridicules the rest of his school’s attitude towards him. He recognizes that he and the other black players on the team are accepted because of their basketball skill so he wears white gloves and powders his face to expose the minstrel show dynamic. Although readers are aware of the racial prejudice the characters face, we are still hopeful that this skill is enough to secure them a bright future. The fact that even their intellectual and athletic abilities are not enough to prevent their suicides makes the end that much more crushing.

            Gunnar’s improvisation is a sign not only of his intelligence, but also an indication of his general nature. Gunnar meets racial prejudice head on with clever retorts. He always fights back and refuses to let racial prejudice pass unnoticed. The first time we see this falter is when he sees the results of the Rodney King trial. Gunnar has no response, all he can do is sink into the couch and let the crushing reality of extent of racism in America weigh down on him. Gunnar’s response to the Rodney King trial sets the dynamic for the rest of the novel. Before this section, Gunnar definitely recognizes how he is discriminated against, but he always puts a humorous spin on it. After the Rodney King trial, we get a much bleaker picture of the racism Gunnar has faced. Although Gunnar never faces the racism as extreme as the protagonists in Native Son and Invisible Man, he still has to sustain extremely dehumanizing experiences. One example of this is when Psycho Loco and Gunnar have a conversation about the instances they have been stopped by the police.

            On the final page of the novel, Beatty voices one of his criticisms of American society when Gunnar explains his rationale for suicide to Psycho Loco. Gunnar explains that fighting back is just playing into society’s twisted role for black people in America. There is no fight to be had, “me (Gunnar) and America aren’t even enemies” (226). The imagery of Gunnar as “the horse pulling the stagecoach” (226) is very powerful in that it shows how American society can just control him. Gunnar realizes that the best way to fight back is to take control over his life and not give America the satisfaction. This concept is illustrated earlier in the novel when Gunnar talks to Scoby about suicide. Scoby asks, “‘To kill yourself you don’t need a permit do you?’” to which Gunnar responds “‘Naw, I don’t think so’” (204). This quite cynical interaction shows the mentality that suicide is the only path free from control.

            I think that it is worth briefly differentiating between their suicides and when Gunnar’s father commits suicide. Gunnar’s father lived a life as “the horse pulling the stagecoach”. He is a part of the corrupt LAPD and does not stand up for his race. Rather, he laughs along with the jokes and lets them use his face as a basis for identifying criminals. When he commits suicide he dies by “choking on the firing pin” (226). He intends to shoot himself, but instead chokes on the firing pin which symbolizes his lack of ownership over his life.

            By no means am I saying that Beatty encourages his readers to think that Gunnar’s choice is the correct solution. Beatty uses suicide to shock the reader and force the reader to see how the severity of Gunnar’s predicament. Throughout the novel exaggerates scenarios for stronger reactions from the readers. For instance, the overnight move to hillside and the nature of some of the characters stand out. Not only are the suicides there to demonstrate the extreme impacts of racism, Beatty uses the suicide to point out American society’s perverse means of satisfaction. This is demonstrated when the smirk on the reporter’s face tells Gunnar the results of the Rodney King trial before he even hears it. Suicide as the only means to win shines a light on the corruption of American society.

Racial Equality, Not Ignorance

In the novels we have read so far this year, we have encountered multiple white people attempting to crusade for racial equality fail when they ignore the differences society imposes on the races. This happens in Native Son when Mary and Jan try to treat Bigger Thomas as they would treat any of their white friends, and in The White Boy Shuffle when Ms. Cegeny, Gunnar Kaufman’s teacher, tries to show the narrator that she does not see color. Both of these attempts backfire, and ironically, these events highlight the gap between the races.

            The episode in Native Son takes place when Bigger drives Mary and Jan around town. Part of my Native Son paper covered Bigger’s inexperience with the white community and how he was unprepared to spend a night out with Mary and Jan. Mary and Jan try to appeal to Bigger’s race rather than seeing him as his own individual. At the beginning of the night, Mary tells Bigger they are on their way to pick up his friend instead of telling him they are picking up Jan. She tries to show that they are on his side, but instead just confuses him. Mary and Jan try to appeal to Bigger with their knowledge of African-American music and restaurants. They try to treat Bigger as an equal, but Bigger still views them as the white symbols of power he has grown up seeing and even says sitting between them is like “sitting between two vast white looming walls”. Instead of making Bigger feel accepted, Mary and Jan make Bigger more aware of their differences. He becomes more aware of his black skin which makes him feel “naked, transparent”, and even as if it is a “badge of shame”.

            Gunnar Kaufman’s third grade teacher, Ms. Cegeny, makes a similar error. Kaufman remarks that classroom multiculturalism “reduced race, sexual orientation, and gender to inconsequence”. The signs of this mentality are all over the classroom. Ms. Cegeny owns a shirt that reads “Black, White, Red, Yellow, Brown, Human” with all the words except for “Human” crossed out. A poster in the classroom reads, “Eracism – the sun doesn’t care what color you are” which Ms. Cegeny makes sure to bring attention to when she wears her special shirt. This obsession with erasing differences in the classroom yields similar results to Native Son when the students are made even more aware of their differences. Kaufman notices on days when Ms. Cegeny wears this shirt, she pays special attention to the racial minorities and those are the days he is called on the most. The education with this mentality is dangerous. Ms. Cegeny teaches the students that Justice is colorblind in American society. She ignores and marginalizes the struggles of minorities to receive equal treatment in the eyes of the law.