Gunnar is probably the most socially-aware person in the entire book. Throughout the entire book, he's constantly seeing the subtly unjust social dynamics at play. During the Shakespeare scene where Nicholas messes up his monologue, Gunnar can see that this is exactly what the audience had expected of the black kids from Hillside performing Shakespeare. In response to this, he goes up on stage and calls them all out in order to draw a large amount of negative attention to it. Later on, he does the exact same thing on the basketball court by dressing up as a minstrel in order to make the performance aspect of the whole game blatantly obvious to them.
He makes his marks in very clever ways. When he notices somebody, especially himself, conforming to an unfair stereotype, he'll always call it out instead of just rolling with it. I think that it's a very good lesson to learn from Gunnar. It reminds me of the Narrator's thoughts in Invisible Man where he wonders if it really is or isn't rude for the white man to ask him to sing for them. Everybody should be themselves, regardless of whether they're conforming or not conforming to a particular stereotype, so long as they're still aware of it.
I definitely agree with your thoughts on Gunnar's social awareness. He managed to take note on even the smallest of things, and what I find is so amazing is how he manages to comment on them in serious, yet a little bit of a comedic way. Gunnar is clearly a very intelligent young man, who know a lot about the world, and is also a very artistic young man, and so manages to display his views on the world. The most amazing example I think of this is in Gunnar's basketball game where he dons the blackface. It's a very intelligent, and rarely made (or at least emphasized) connection between minstrelsy and basketball players. He then goes through this entire process of donning the black face to put on his show, and through this form of art, he then protests the current state of affairs.
ReplyDeleteGunnar is definitely socially aware of the dynamics in the community around him. I think this is because he grew up in a mostly white community so he knows how they think in general and knows how the social dynamics play out. This gives him an advantage in some situations such as the poetry competition where he is able to perform how he wants to even though there is a looming white paternal presence. His familiarity with he dynamics allow him to act so that he can accomplish what he wants to do without harming either side of the social dynamic.
ReplyDeleteThere are strong parallels between these two scenes--the Shakespeare monologue and the minstrel-basketball scene. Both show that Gunnar is not just a poet but a kind of spontaneous performance artist, improvising complex social commentaries on the spot. He takes the social awareness you refer to and turns it into art.
ReplyDeleteI see a strong connection in their social awareness between Bigger and Gunnar. They both are acutely aware of their positions in society and also when to go with it and when to fight it. There is interesting difference them though, and that is through how they rebel against society. Bigger does this in highly dramatic fashion, "murdering" a girl and then proceeding to blackmail the Daltons. Gunnar on the other hand does through himself, rejecting social norms to become a poet and basketball player, and he does it through his art. I'm hopeful that this difference between the books is in response to a more accepting society, where actions as drastic as Bigger's are no longer required.
ReplyDeleteI saw it not quite as a more accepting society, but as a more "free" character. A big difference between Gunnar and Bigger is their financial situations, as Gunnar's parents can afford to put him in white schools and by him nice basketball shoes. Gunnar has way more opportunities than Bigger in his society. Wright also used more realism in his novel than Beatty, so for the most part Gunnar's reactions to things are meant for comedic effect/relief.
DeleteYeah, this is one of the first things that jumped out at me while reading the book. No eight year old actually thinks like that. Very few highschoolers even think like Gunnar does. He's a very talented person. I guess Beatty has to use Gunnar as a lens throughout so he needs to be able to notice the stuff Beatty wants to point out.
ReplyDeleteGunnar is extremely perceptive of the way that society views him, even when he's young. The scene where he's wisecracking the police officers who visit him to dissuade him getting involved with gangs. Gunnar becomes even more aware, along with Scoby to some extent, in high school when he becomes a star basketball player. He becomes aware of this element of minstrelsy, when he puts the cold cream on his face and wears white gloves to put on a show for the crowd. That also explains why Gunnar goes to Boston University instead schools like Harvard.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting that Gunnar challenges the minstrel dynamics in basketball in such a dramatic way, but then joins a team again in college. That shows a key aspect of both Gunnar's and Nick's characters: they are both very aware of social dynamics, and willing to call people out, but they can also move on and continue doing what they enjoy even if it may be appreciated by white people in a minstrel-esque way. We see this for Nick as well when he starts trying again in basketball after stopping because people liked him to much because his coach had told him to do it for himself, and Gunnar's experience is very similar.
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