Death in Beloved vs. The White Boy Shuffle

Death is a concept that is explored in depth in Beloved. The idea of death as an escape route is explored, especially in Sethe’s killing of Beloved. Also, Sethe’s claim that nothing ever dies seems to represent her views on death as something that is not permanent. This is also reflected in the way that Beloved keeps haunting Sethe and her family no matter how she tries to get rid of it. The book really explores what death is and how it changes a person.

This can be contrasted with Gunnar’s opinion of death in the White Boy Shuffle. Gunnar sees death as an escape route, as a way out from a world that will never be fair to his people. Sethe seems to see it in a similar light, as her killing of Beloved sends Beloved to a place where she is safe from the horrors of schoolteacher and slavery in general. However, there are some differences. Notably, in the White Boy Shuffle, there seems to be a much greater feeling of the permanent end that death brings. There is no overlap between the dead and the living, whereas in Beloved, the concept of death seems to be much more complex. This is really driven home by the way the book is written; giving us different pieces of the story at different times and intentionally not writing the book in chronological order along with the aspect that Beloved has literally not died, as she is present in the story in flesh. In the White Boy Shuffle, there is a finality that is represented by death being the final choice, when anyone dies, it has consequences in the world of the novel, but the rest of the characters move on. Death is a catalyst for things in the White Boy Shuffle, it leads to a safer path, but in Beloved, while death seems to lead to a safer path, it also poses the question of what death means, and what it means for someone to truly die.

Sethe's Decision

Beloved is a very complex novel, and the climactic scene in the novel is the most striking of all. Sethe’s decision to kill her children to keep them safe seems astounding, and unbelievable on the surface, but as you begin to understand the situation she was in and her history, we can see that while still a very debatable action, her killing Beloved isn’t as obviously horrific and terrible as it initially seems. Sethe is literally trapped, in a woodshed with schoolteacher and his party approaching, and she faces the seemingly inevitable possibility of being returned to slavery. She seems to lash out, and knowing that resisting schoolteacher and his party would be futile, she kills Beloved instead.

The killing is a bit more complex than the immediate horrified response due to the context of the situation. Sethe’s inability to escape combined with her remembering the horrors of slavery cause her to take the drastic measure of killing Beloved. In many ways however, the ploy actually works. While the cost is immense, she convinces schoolteacher that she is damaged goods, leaving nobody to take care of Denver if she is taken back to slavery. Howard and Buglar are covered in blood, and as a result deemed unfit to help around Sweet Home as well. She successfully protects the rest of her family and herself from a return to Kentucky, and puts Beloved where schoolteacher cannot reach her. Beloved, along with the rest of her family, is safe from slavery, and as a result, the decision accomplished what is was supposed to. Obviously, it is still an objectionable action, as we see when Sethe and Paul D part and Paul D basically calls Sethe an animal for being unable to control her emotions and find another way. This is significant, because even Paul D, who understands the horrors of slavery in a way few do still finds her actions despicable and unexplainable.

Her whole life (and the whole book) seems to revolve around this moment. This day is ingrained in the events of the future, as seemingly everywhere Sethe goes and is, she is reminded of it. Denver suffers from the social stigma attached to Sethe’s deeds as well. The ghost is a constant reminder to Sethe of her choice on that day, and when Paul D returns and drives away the ghost, it returns in flesh to Sethe, although she doesn’t seem to realize it at first. It is really interesting that Sethe doesn’t connect the fact that the name of their guest is Beloved to the gravestone initially, because it seems that a mysterious person appearing shortly after the ghost disappeared whose name was Beloved should ring bells. Its almost as if Sethe truly wants to forget, but cannot seem to no matter what she does. She tries to ignore the name and strangeness of Beloved at first, despite Beloved’s strange, obsessive fascination with her.

Style Wars

Style Wars was an interesting movie because of the perspective it provided on the origins and growth of hip-hop culture and graffiti art. It traced the development of the art form and showed us a variety of different artists along with insight into the ongoing fight against authority. It seems troubling to me that authority figures seemed intent on removing the graffiti and stopping the artists, even going to lengths such as using dogs and barbed wire fences, and devoting resources to washing the trains. It may seem like a way to make people feel safer, but it seems like the police should put less time into stopping graffiti artists from putting up art that makes passengers feel unsafe, and instead devote that time and resources to making the subway rides safer. One interesting dynamic that we touched on in conversation after the movie was the racial diversity on display in the groups of graffiti writers. While rappers and break dancers seemed to be solely made out of minority groups, mostly blacks and some Latinos, there were a surprising amount of white graffiti artists. It was cool to see how the artists learned from each other and were able to give a history of the different innovations and when they came, almost like a history of graffiti art. The concept of style was very central to the culture, hence the term “Style Wars”. I think this clearly shown in the way the artists interact with each other. It seems like the worst thing somebody can do is steal from someone else; each person had their own individual style and technique that made them different. Its also interesting to see how much street art has evolved from the days when the movie was shot. The development of graffiti art and the idea of chronicling the different innovations shows just how quickly the art form evolved. This rapid growth and evolution is a product of the nature of the art; when it is on trains, it is seen by a lot of people, and thus ideas seem to spread so quickly.



This movie also brought up the question of crime, and what it really means. The idea of defacing public property seemed to be the reason that people considered graffiti art crime. However, the art did no harm to anyone, and it seems unfair to consider it a crime. The writers didn’t exploit, harass, or hurt anyone; they just wanted to express their feelings in art and let the world see it. On the surface, it seems strange that these writers do what they do; they aren’t paid for it in most cases, run the risk of getting thrown in jail, and don’t get any material gains from graffiti writing. It doesn’t even seem to be about recognition, its more about expressing themselves. I think that graffiti art and hip-hop culture gives a voice to groups of people who often find themselves unable to express their ideas. It gives anyone an ability to express themselves through art, they don’t need permission from anyone else, it is their own work. This dynamic seems to draw people to graffiti writing.

Stereotyping of Athletes

Recently in class we have been talking about the minstrelsy dynamic in class, and the stereotyping of athletes, as people who should just “shut up and play”. To me, this reminded me of Kevin Durant’s MVP speech last year, where he thanked all the people who helped him get to where he was. He was most emotional when talking about his mom, at one point telling her that she was the real MVP. This line has been made fun of so many times, and while many people acknowledge it as a touching speech, others discount it, saying he shouldn’t be crying the day before a game, that he is soft for being emotional, and that he should just focus on beating the other team. This instance really helps illustrate the dynamic that athletes in pro sports experience. Kevin Durant has had to alter his personality and appearance in order to be more marketable, and this is simply not right. The image that all athletes have to be well-trained, focused, machines who play hard and be tough isn’t a fair stereotype to push all athletes into.

Another example of KD receiving criticism for acting “soft” was when with the playoff series tied 2-2, and his teammate Russell Westbrook shooting 3 free throws with the Thunder down by 2, he sat down on the court and looked away. Apparently, this is wrong, and as an athlete he should be able to stand there and watch. He needs to be able to cope with the tension of the situation because that’s what is expected of him as a superstar in the NBA. If he wants to have fans, get endorsements, and be liked, he doesn’t have a choice but to adopt a persona; he is just another performer who does what the crowd wants him to do.

Kevin Durant has been forced to change his personality simply because of the media and the fans. After criticism following the 2012 NBA finals that he was too much of a “nice guy”, and didn’t have the killer instinct needed to win the title, he responded. During his 2010-11 season, Durant had 3 technical fouls, in 2011-12 he had 5 technical fouls. In 2012-13, after the criticism, he had 12 technicals, and last year he tied for the league lead with 16 technicals. This drastic increase didn’t happen by random chance; Durant was told that he had to be more fiery on the court, and he doesn’t have a choice but to please the crowd, at the core, he is an entertainer and nothing more, his actual personality is rendered meaningless because the fans and media, most of whom have never even met Durant, deem it unfit for an athlete.

Gunnar and Basketball

Basketball in the White Boy Shuffle is a central theme to Gunnar’s development as a character. However, in the book, it doesn’t function in the way that we might expect given his situation and where he lives. In the media and in many stories, basketball is often portrayed as a way out for people who live in tough situations in rough neighborhoods with gang activity and the like. Being a gifted basketball player represents a chance at getting out of the situation that many young black kids are stuck in. NBA stars talk about how basketball helped them avoid the toxic situations they grew up in and succeed in the world despite their surroundings. Both Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose grew up on the south side of Chicago, and they are just two of many who received chances to escape because of basketball.

However, in this book, basketball is portrayed completely differently, especially after Nick and Gunnar reach high school. Nick absolutely hates the attention that he gets, and Gunnar is pretty uncertain about it himself. The public scrutiny on both of them is too much, and Gunnar seems to prefer his reputation as a poet to being cast as a star basketball player. Its almost as if hanging out with Psycho Loco and the gang provides an escape for Gunnar from the scrutiny and attention he receives because of his basketball skills, where Gunnar can just be himself and not worry about pleasing anybody.

When Gunnar goes to basketball camp, the kids he rooms with talk basketball all the time, and seem to truly have a passion for the game. In Gunnar’s case, he is just supremely naturally talented, but never seems to show that much drive to want to get better or desire to play basketball at a high level. His energy goes into being a good poet and writing poems, that is what he seems to be truly passionate about. Being the poet for the gang and defeating other gangs’ poets gives him more pride than anything he achieves on the basketball court. We see his indifference firsthand at the end of his first game at Phillis Wheatley high, he misses one free throw on purpose when he has a chance to win the game, marveling at the power he has to send everyone into frenzied celebration or send everyone home disappointed, before making the second one, he muses that he has hypnotic power over the crowd. I think that the point being made here is that there is more to Gunnar than just being a basketball player; even when he first starts playing ball in the park, when people tell him he is a baller he resents the “pigeonholing” even though he enjoys the fact that he no longer feels so out of place. The book is trying to make clear that Gunnar isn’t just a supremely gifted athlete, and that Nick Scoby isn’t just a guy who never misses a basketball shot, but that they each have their own identity outside of basketball.

Chapter 4: Gunnar's Transformation

In the 4th chapter of the White Boy Shuffle, Gunnar goes through a pretty serious transformation. In this long episode, he goes from being an awkward misfit who seems out of place in his Hillside surroundings to by the end of the chapter seeming much more comfortable in his surroundings and more outgoing. One question that comes up during this transformation is what changes between Gunnar’s awkward attempts to make friends and assimilate earlier and his newfound confidence and self-assurance in the latter part of chapter 4. Nicholas Scoby is a key part of this transformation, as he is the first one of the cool kids/in crowd to accept Gunnar. When Gunnar first approaches Nick, it seems very similar to events during the summer that usually resulted in him getting beaten up. However Nick has a different attitude towards Gunnar, talking to him and accepting him as part of the group. Once Gunnar feels like he belongs, a lot of the tension goes away and he begins to act cool in his new environment. His innate talent for basketball helps him and he begins to interact with new people. Gunnar talks about how there is a certain rite of passage that one must pass to be part of the group in Hillside,and that nobody trusts you until you prove yourself trustworthy. Basketball becomes his identity in the town and his new haircut and the way he dresses represents that.

One other thing that occurs in Chapter 4 that represents the social dynamic is Hillside. When Gunnar says hi to Psycho Loco, Nick hears about it and tells Gunnar that he is now going to be involved in the gang’s activities as Psycho Loco will ask him for favors because he likes Gunnar. This brings up the question of how far Gunnar will go for his friends. When Gunnar gets beaten after going to play basketball with Nick and his friends, he thinks of it as taking a beating for friendship. These episodes made me wonder how far Gunnar is willing to go for his friends, it seems like he was willing to directly disobey an order for the sake of friendship, but how far does this go? This dynamic in the book seems like a subplot that could become relevant; Gunnar has to find a balance between pleasing his friends and going to jail, which could be increasingly difficult to do if he indeed is to become a part of Psycho Loco’s friend circle.

Janie's marriages

Janie’s first two marriages contrast in some ways, but actually share similar characteristics in that they both fail to keep her happy, and she very quickly becomes disillusioned with the man she has married. In the case of Logan Killicks, she goes into the marriage already against marrying him, and although Nanny makes her, she is apprehensive due to his looks and habits. Janie cares about loving him and wants to reach her ideal of marriage, while Nanny, who has had a tough life, believes the ideal marriage is one that can provide financial security and prevent much hardship in Janie’s life. Janie brings up her concerns to Nanny after she is married, asking Nanny why she doesn’t exactly feel love for Logan Killicks, even though they have been married for a while. During this discussion, we see the disconnect between Janie’s ideals of love in marriage, and Nanny’s practical idea of the necessity of marriage as a means of security and safety. Nanny tells Janie to just stay with Logan because of what he can provide for her, and also tells her that eventually she will develop feelings for Logan, or at least appreciate what he does for her. After Nanny’s death, it seems like only a matter of time before Janie and Logan’s marriage ends. Nanny was the one who was holding it together, and without her trying to get Janie to stick with it, Janie seems destined to leave. Sure enough, a year later, Janie meets Joe Starks.

Joe doesn’t fit Janie’s ideal husband picture either, but as she says in the book, he stands for something new, a change, which she wants to pursue. Her life in Eatonville seems to become a low point for her, since she has to suppress her emotions and act in ways that she doesn’t want to act. Jody is over protective of Janie and wants her to act high class and proper. Janie feels suppressed and restrained; she lacks freedom to do what she wants to do in the marriage. While she does do a good job at playing the part, helping in Jody’s store, she feels emotionless and detached, going through the actions rather than truly enjoying life. Again, she has a situation where she has money and financial security, as Jody is always helping out the town and is mayor of Eatonville, but her life doesn’t meet her ideal. Throughout the book, we see Janie struggling with the idea of the playing the part and accepting that her idea of marriage was naive and innocent in the face of the realities of the world, or to keep expressing herself and trying to find the right fit. This struggle is shown in her marriage to Jody,  as when as he is dying, she finally expresses why she was so frustrated with the marriage. She enjoys her independence very much, but again pretends to be in mourning to conform to expectations. She is wary of potential suitors now, and seems to be more experienced and less willing to rush into a marriage after her experience with Jody. However, she still seems to hold out hope that there might be someone who fits her ideal out there.

Dialogue

One of the most striking things about Their Eyes Were Watching God is the dialogue, and the way it is presented by Zora Neale Hurston. An important question that came up was whether the phonetic dialogue, representing a style of speech that especially at the time had connotations as being the way uneducated people speak, adds to the novel and how it does so. I think the phonetic speech seems a little downgrading, as it separates the narrator from the characters speaking. The narrator sounds polished and speaks in clear succinct sentences that are easy to read and understand while the dialogue is written with odd spellings and broken sentences to represent speech.

However, I do think that despite there being connotations that the people of the South aren’t as educated/skilled as the blacks of the Harlem Renaissance in the north, the dialogue adds a dynamic to the book that makes it more interesting. Sometimes, it is necessary to read the dialogue aloud to yourself just to understand the conversation better, and in this way I feel like the book truly conveys speech. In a book that is so reliant on the telling of Janie’s story, the dialogue gives it a personal feel. The way the book flows from Janie’s voice to the narrator is done well, as it fits in rather seamlessly. One concern with these two styles of writing is the disconnect that could disrupt the narrative, but the author does a good job of splitting up the styles and keeping things fresh while also telling the narrative in a cohesive manner. This all plays into the idea that Janie is telling the story, we are not just observers of her story, but she is actually telling it. It is a frame narrative, but the book reminds us throughout that Janie, having been through everything she talks about, is telling us the story. This also adds to the depth of the story, because we see Janie reflect on her feelings in the past and how they changed as she grew older and more experienced.

Narrator's Journey to being free of the Brotherhood

          In Invisible Man, the narrator seems to be finally realizing that the Brotherhood is controlling him in much the same way that he has been controlled and kept running for most of his life. One of the points when it becomes clear to the narrator that he has been disillusioned with the Brotherhood is when he has an argument with Brother Jack and Tobit about holding a funeral for Clifton. According to Brother Jack, holding a funeral for a traitor like Clifton who was selling racist dolls should not be given a funeral like a hero. Of course, Clifton was shot while unarmed by a policeman, and so to the narrator this is clearly more important than the dolls Clifton was selling. Here is one of the quotes from the book “an unarmed man was killed. A brother, a leading member shot down by a policeman. We had lost our prestige in the community. I saw the chance to rally the people, so I acted. If that was incorrect, then I did wrong, so say it straight without this crap. It'll take more than sarcasm to deal with that crowd out there” (Wright 352). The narrator expresses his discontent with the fact that Brother Jack and the rest of the leaders of the Brotherhood are frustrated with him holding a funeral for Clifton. Later on, Jack says “All right, I'll answer. Under your leadership, a traitorous merchant of vile instruments of anti-Negro, anti-minority racist bigotry has received the funeral of a hero. Do you still ask what's wrong?" (Wright 352). This shows the narrator that clearly the Brotherhood doesn’t understand the nature of the crowd and the anger that is coursing through the Harlem community, and it also shows him that he doesn’t actually have any ability to make decisions without the consent of the committee. Earlier in the chapter, Jack scoffs at the idea that the narrator used his “personal responsibility” to make the decision to hold the funeral.
          After this episode and the scene where the narrator discovers the Rinehart disguise and all the different “lives” that Rinehart seems to live, he realizes that when he thought he was making a difference, he was really just a puppet of the Brotherhood. During his conversation with Brother Hambro, he realizes how out of touch the Brotherhood is with the actual situation. After discovering Rinehart, the narrator feels like there is a gulf between him and Hambro, as if he has finally escaped the disillusionment of the Brotherhood. As Hambro talks about how the Negro race needs to be slowed down for their own good, the narrator, while eventually seeming to accept what Hambro has to say internally disagrees and feels frustrated with the Brotherhood. After this meeting, he finally embraces and understands his invisibility and resolves to utilize his grandfather’s advice against the Brotherhood. This realization completes the narrator’s transformation, he escapes the disillusionment of the Brotherhood and begins to work on finding out what the Brotherhood’s real objectives are behind the facade that they set up during committee meetings.

Narrator's Speech and the Brotherhood

          The narrator’s entrance in the Brotherhood, while seen by the narrator as something that gives him freedom at this point, feels similar to the narrator being sent to college. He is recruited by Brother Jack to be part of the Brotherhood, but as soon as he joins, he is given a new identity and told where he is to live. It seems like his ability to define his identity for himself is taken away once again, as the narrator is once again told how he should act and the image he should strive to create in public. As he leaves Mary’s, he is carrying the remains of the bank that he smashed, because it reminded him of his old identity, but it kept being given back to him by people who claim to know who he is and what he is doing. It feels like the narrator cannot escape the identity no matter what he does. And while he wants to be as far away from Bledsoe as possible, taking a community leadership position by saying all the right things at the right time is very similar to what Bledsoe does; the narrator initially takes the job because he needs money.
          The speech scene is a particularly interesting scene because it takes place in a boxing arena, which itself is reminiscent of the battle royal in the opening chapter, but also because of the imagery about blindness. The narrator notices a picture of a champion boxer who lost his sight in a fight. This could be foreshadowing, as the narrator thinks that he is championing the people and the cause, but in reality has become blinded once more. The suspicion and caution he displayed after the letter from Bledsoe has disappeared once more, and he trusts the Brotherhood blindly. Also, when he goes to give his speech he is blinded by the lights, which contributes to him forgetting the ideals of the Brotherhood and just going on instinct. Yet, while this speech successfully gets the attention of the crowd, some members of the Brotherhood are frustrated by his inflammatory style, and he is sent to learn the ideals of the Brotherhood and learn to give speeches in a more scientific manner. This is just another set of ideals that are impressed upon the narrator, hardly different from the college. While the narrator fails to see it, studying these ideals just blinds him once again as he starts to treat every situation by the ideals of the Brotherhood than by his own ideals and opinions.

Eviction Scene

The eviction scene with the narrator is quite interesting, as despite the fact that he is feeling nostalgia for his life in the South, he reacts in a way that is completely different than he would have acted when he used to live in the South. He misses giving speeches and also thinks about his college. While feeling nostalgia, he also thinks about how his classmates would be stunned at seeing him with yams, which are symbols of Southern culture. He seems to look down on them for distancing themselves from things that they in fact enjoy. The speech is also really interesting in that what he says seems to be different than the subject of the speech in the first chapter and he gains the attention of everyone. His message seems to be that everyone shouldn't just stand and watch, and he manages to encourage the crowd.

This scene is part of a bigger picture like everything else in the book, and I think that is what makes this book interesting. Chapters in this book can almost be read as short stories, but the character telling them seems to change so much although the change is very gradual. He goes from being a totally subservient person in Chapter 1 where he would do whatever the whites told him to being the sarcastic, ironic, person who appears in the prologue, but throughout the book, he never changes drastically. He gradually becomes something different through episodes in his life. These key moments include reading Bledsoe's letter, fighting Brockway, and giving this speech at the eviction urging the blacks to fight back and not accept the circumstances after himself being so willing to accept whatever he was told to do back in the South.

Contrasting Dr. Bledsoe and Mr. Dalton

              In Native Son, Mr. Dalton seems like he is genuinely trying to help at first, however he is so out of touch with the realities of the situation that his aid is made to seem hollow. His donation of ping pong tables is something that, when put in perspective with Bigger’s story, is insignificant. Mr. Dalton lacks any true understanding of what Bigger Thomas and people like him go through on an everyday basis, and his donation and the fact that he acts as if he is doing Bigger a favor by giving him a job shows this. Also contributing to the picture of Mr. Dalton is the fact that while acting all helpful and claiming to be a philanthropist who supports black Americans, he still makes money by charging blacks heavy rent on Chicago’s South Side.
              I think that Mr. Dalton has many similarities to Bledsoe in Invisible Man. Both of them pose as helpers of the black race, but they do so in part to hide and/or protect motives that are primarily for personal gain. Mr. Dalton seems to think that being nice to the blacks on the surface ensures that they trust him and will continue to pay him. Bledsoe uses the pose of educator to secure himself a position of power in the white world, and distances himself from his race while acting as a leader of his race. He is selfish, and uses his power to remove anyone who he thinks is a threat to his perfect illusion of the college. He acts subservient to whites as a means to further his own power, thinking nothing of it other than a simple necessity.
              They are different in many ways as well. For example, Mr. Dalton is actually more similar to Mr. Norton in the literal sense as Mr. Norton is a northern white philanthropist like Dalton. However, Dalton seems to be a bit more informed about the situation of the blacks in the South Side of Chicago, while Mr. Norton seems to be genuinely trying to help, however ignorant he may be. Bledsoe on the other hand tries to trick Mr. Norton into seeing only what Bledsoe wants him to see and by extension what Mr. Norton is most likely hoping to see; a nice college for educating African Americans. He willingly hides parts of the reality of the situation or attempts to in order to cater to Mr. Norton, and get money from him. Also, he wants to have power, and he gets it through the trustees, so he tries to make sure they see only what he wants them to see. In this way, he seems to almost hinder the actual progress of the race, and he doesn't care, his only goal seems to be maintaining power.