In, The White Boy
Shuffle, there are many ways that we can see similarities between the way
that Gunnar retaliates against what he sees as racism and what how Sethe
responds to the arrival of the four horsemen. With both Beatty and Morrison,
they make us come to love the character, Sethe for godlike ability to make it
to her children, and Gunnar for being funny to the point where he is satirical.
With both of their methods of protest and escape being suicide, we can look at
them the same way, right. Wrong!
When looking at the way that Sethe made her decision to kill
her children, we can see that she did it because she loved them so much. She
didn’t see any other way to protect her children from Schoolteacher and so she
what she believed to be the right decision. While we cannot assess the
situation because we did not experience the same things she did, we do know
that Schoolteacher was a bad person and Sweet Home did not put the “sweet” in
the “home”. Just like the poem that Phong presented in class today, to someone
who doesn’t know what slavery is like, being forcibly separated from someone
you love and knowing that they are going to be hurt is worse than burying that
person. We can see Sethe’s point of view and thus feel more empathetic to her
plight.
On the other hand, we do not see the same urgency with
Gunnar. While it is clearly visible that people treat him differently because
of his race, it is clear that he has it better than Sethe. The racism that he
experiences is more, being treated like an object and the way that basketball
is treated in the book is that it is similar to slavery. The decision to commit
mass suicide doesn’t evoke the same sympathy that we feel when Sethe decides to
kill her children and is ridiculed for it. He also has the support of the wider
community which makes his decision seem less emotional based.
Thus, there are many differences between the Sethe’s and
Gunnar’s situations and the decisions they make seem do not evoke the same
responses. While killing your own child is an extreme thing to do, even though
we are appalled by the act, we can’t think of anything else she could’ve done
and it worked. Suicide is a controversial topic, but sometimes we can feel
empathetic towards the decision of one to take their own life because of their
struggles. With Gunnar, we cannot see any tremendous amount of struggle and
therefore, it is harder for us to see his decision as right. How do you feel
about the similar decisions of both of these people in dramatically different
situations?
Both Sethe and Gunnar are in situations of great stress where they must make decisions that determine the life and death of their loved ones, but this does not mean that their situations are all that similar. As you said, Sethe kills because she knows it increases the chance of a free future for her family, and an infant's death is a worthy sacrifice to her. While Gunnar is also sacrificing himself and his family, he's doing it as a form of protest. But of course, as a reader in 2019 we cannot truly Judge Sethe or Gunnar's decisions because their lives have been starkly different from ours.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me think back to our discussion on Naomi. While we see Sethe killing her child as a way of protecting her from slavery, the setting in "The White Boy Shuffle" is much different. Sure, there are a lot of problems that Naomi will face, but is it worth dying for (especially considering she doesn't have a say in it)? It's not the sort of sudden problem that faced Sethe when Schoolteacher arrived. It was already difficult for me to accept Sethe deciding to end her child's life for slavery, but this is on a whole different level. But, as Aryan said, we can't fully judge or understand their actions because we haven't been in their shoes.
ReplyDeleteI think fundamentally we're not quite meant to take Gunnar's proposal seriously? Or, at least, not in the same way we see Sethe's actions? There her motives seem clear, and definitely reachable and plausible, while Gunnar's decision to die in nuclear fire because there's no other way forward seems to be another form of surrealism taken up by the book. We're not really meant to understand Gunnar's specific decision, but more the emotions behind it I guess?
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the racism both character's felt are vastly different. While Gunnar is still being treated unfairly and discriminated against, I do think he has a way better situation than Sethe, who is struggling with the effects of slavery. Because of Sethe's dire situation, we are more likely to sympathize with her decision, even though we are unable to fully understand her situation. With Gunnar's situation, I felt like his decision for mass suicide was just another one of Beatty's bizarre and exaggerated ideas.
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