From
what I’ve read so far in the book, Gunnar seems to be a generally “woke” (and
hilarious) narrator, which sets him apart from the narrator in Invisible Man. However, Gunnar is quite
passive when it comes to his personal path in life. His friends and family
choose his life decisions for him, or at least, are the biggest component in
making those decisions. One example is basketball. Basketball makes Gunnar
famous across America and helps him get a full-ride scholarship to Boston
University, but Gunner isn’t personally passionate about it or even cares.
During the high school game, Gunner gets annoyed
by how important it is to his peers that make the shot and it is clear from the
emails he sends to his friends and family over the summer that he really doesn’t
like basketball. Then why does he do it? It started off being because of Scoby.
Scoby makes Gunnar play basketball the first time Gunnar goes out with him and
his friends. When Gunnar dunks, his new friends adore him and tell everyone
about it and so Gunnar just runs with it. But it was never something that genuinely
interested Gunnar.
Another big life decision for Gunnar
that he doesn’t make is who he marries. Gunnar expresses no interest in the woman
that are around him, and so he never is in a relationship. When Psycho Loco literally
mails Gunnar a Japanese bride (Yoshiko
Katsu), Gunnar just goes ahead and marries her when a) they have just about nothing
in common and b) they don’t know each other. Maybe I’m reading too much into
it, but it looks to me like Gunnar is just letting other people and his
surrounds just run his life and his choices and I wonder if that is the message
that Beatty is trying to get across to the reader.
Thoughts?
Good post! I also noticed this and was mildly frustrated. I think that is why in the scene with the L.A. Riots, we were surprised with Gunner's reaction and when he told his friends to go without him.
ReplyDeleteYeah I noticed this too. He doesn't really seem to have a lot of agency in his life and this reminds me a lot of Native Son in which there is a very similar situation (although others are not directly making his decisions for him, he is constantly cornered and forced into his decisions).
ReplyDeleteI definitely think Beatty is doing something with this part of Gunnar, particularly with his marriage to Yoshiko. It's sort of showing how he doesn't even NEED to chose a path, there's already one for him. It adds to his eventual disillusionment; because of his race, everyone already thinks something about him before they know him. He's good at basketball, so people expect something from him. And he gets married, because it's just so accepted to get married and that has no actual weight. I kind of read it as a criticism of the normalcy of really messed up things in American society.
ReplyDeleteYou're definitely not reading too much into it. As I read this novel, I got increasingly uncomfortable with Gunnar's apathy, to the point where I was very concerned for his mental health and wellbeing. What starts as a joke snowballs, as Gunnar describes his rape in a scarily nonchalant way and discusses the way his father beat him with mild interest. The tone really makes you stop and think. What is actually going on here? Why is Gunnar normalizing this horrific stuff? What does that say about our culture?
ReplyDeleteNice post! Now that we've finished the book, I'm trying to decide whether Gunner becomes less apathetic. He does start a huge movement that wasn't something anybody else suggested but he comes up with it pretty spontaneously. He's still not really making his own plans for the future so I guess I'm not sure.
ReplyDelete