The ending of White Boy Shuffle was strange, very strange. The saddest part for me was Chapter 12 when Scoby goes over the edge and kills himself. While reading those five or so pages where we see Scoby go from "bizarre" (203) behavior to killing himself, I couldn't help but yell at Gunnar in my head. What was he doing when his best friend was all but telling him flat out that he wanted to kill himself? Scoby asks him, "To kill yourself you don't need a permit or anything like that, do you?" (204) then leaves his cassette player on the beach with Sarah Vaughan still playing. Every reader at this point has to know that Scoby is going to jump off the law school building, and Gunnar certainly has to know, but instead of going to stop his friend, he drinks beer, listens to jazz, and writes a poem on the train ride home.
At first I didn't blame Gunnar, I figured he was probably in denial that Scoby would even consider killing himself. But now that I think about it, my theory is that Gunnar wanted Scoby to commit suicide. He makes the statement that, "I ain't ready to die for anything, so I guess I'm just not fit to live. In other words, I'm just ready to die. I'm just ready to die" (200), but after saying that, he's receives huge cheers calling for him to become the leader. Later, when he returns to Hillside, he is the unofficial leader of Hillside (with Physco Loco's help) and the budding leader of angry people everywhere. He knows, while he is still in Boston, that he can't kill himself, he means to much to too many people. Then the only way for his suicide pact to not look totally hypocritical is for him to lose someone close to him, and Scoby is perfect for that role. People know about Scoby, the perfect basketball player, and they know that he and Gunnar have been best friends for years, so for Gunnar to lose someone so close to him to suicide shows that he's all in, saying these things from a leadership position isn't a game to him, he means every word because it's real to him. Though in fact, he doesn't take being a leader so seriously, his public actions (like cutting off his finger) keep up his serious leader persona, and make Scoby's death seem all the more convenient.
I'm not sure that I want to believe the argument you make here, but it makes a lot of sense. I too was frustrated when Gunnar did nothing to stop Scoby's death. I let it slide because I thought Gunnar was going to kill himself later, but then he didn't. Gunnar didn't have the courage to kill himself. Adding to this is the fact that Gunnar doesn't seem that sad about it. He is sad, but not in the desperate way I would think he would be after losing his lifelong friend.
ReplyDeleteI was also upset that Scoby had to die so tragically, but I don't believe that Gunnar used Scoby's death to validate his leadership position. Sierra wrote a great blog post that explains how Gunnar is actually reluctant about being a leader, and it doesn't make sense that he would try to prove anything to his followers by allowing Scoby to kill himself, since he never acknowledges his public image.
ReplyDeleteI think that Gunnar let Scoby kill himself in order to "put a n***** out of his misery" (226). Throughout the novel, we see Scoby slowly plunge into emotional instability as people's racist comments and stereotypes get to his head. Gunnar knows that he cannot do anything to help him, since there is no way to end people's negative comments and stereotypes. In Gunnar's last poem, he metaphorically states that it is not his fault that people are committing suicide, but rather society's fault for making them feel miserable enough to do so. I think it is important to understand that the driving force behind all of these suicides is the psychological torture that black people endure in society, not Gunnar's advice.
The ending of the novel poses a number of direct challenges to a reader's sensibilities, and by so passively "killing off" a character we've come to like and respect, and to show his friend so apparently indifferent, is a direct challenge to the author's basic "contract" of pleasing a reader. On one really basic level, we don't want to see Scoby leave the novel. Gunnar seems aware of what Scoby is doing, and he allows him to make this decision for himself--in a way, his desire to keep Scoby alive (against his will) is similar to our desire not to see him go. He gives his friend freedom, in a weird kind of way, rather than "clinging" to him (which, remember, is what's driving him away in the first place--he reacts against all the "worship" of his supernatural basketball skills).
ReplyDelete