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.
I think part of the reason that Gunnar was accepted by Scoby was that Scoby is actually a pretty odd character. In many ways, I think Gunnar (maybe consciously, maybe unconsciously) emulates how Scoby defies stereotypes. For example, Scoby is both this jazz enthusiast hipster-beatnik type, and also a basketball star and has the power & authority to christen Gunnar as "nigger". Gunnar not much later in the book gains this similar status--he too takes on several stereotypically contradictory traits--poetry, gang involvement, basketball, etc. I think because they share this aspect of being uncategorizable, they attract each other.
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