Names in The White Boy Shuffle

Having done a previous blogpost on the various meaningful names of Invisible Man, I thought it would only be fitting if I did something similar for names in The White Boy Shuffle. Thankfully, Beatty did not let us down when it comes to placing easter eggs inside of characters’ names. One thing that is substantially different from Ellison’s use of names, however, is that many of Beatty’s characters have ironic meanings behind their titles.

Firstly, Gunnar’s name is close to a Viking saying that means brave and bold warrior, and the name itself means fighter or soldier. This name is ironic in the sense that the last thing Gunnar seems to be doing at the end of the novel is fighting. He is tired of playing white peoples’ games, so he is sat back waiting to be blown up by an atomic bomb. Once again, “fighter” is not the first verb that comes to mind when trying to describe Gunnar at this point. Then again, when looking at the novel as a whole, Gunnar appears to live up to his name more. For example, his smartass rebuttals and quips throughout the novel are his version of fighting back and getting people to think about their actions. He takes the indirect approach to protesting by making white people ask themselves whether or not what they’re doing is being influenced by racism or racial stereotypes. As for Gunnar’s last name I’m unsure as to what, if any, meaning it has. Kaufman means merchant, but I think that the more important meaning of the name Kaufman is the one Beatty applies to it: servitude to white people. With this in mind, Gunnar’s name which means fighter is a clear opposite of Kaufman, meaning servitude and submissiveness. Beatty likely used this duality to bring up a sort of grandfather approach from Invisible Man. Gunnar’s goal is to protest and fight, but he wants to appear as submissive while he does so in order to undermine the system. He accomplishes this through the use of his intelligence and witty remarks. Another ironic name is Nicholas. Its definition is “victory of the people”, which is strange when applied to Nick Scoby. The reason this is so strange is because Nick spends a large portion of the novel extremely depressed, so if he represents victory, then his character points towards depression being a form of victory. Furthermore, Nick’s depression is so severe that he ends up comitting suicide, which is not anywhere near a victory. This does, however, go along with Gunnar’s ideas that suicide is the answer towards the end of the book. It’s sick, but Gunnar does push mass suicide as the sole victory for black people in the end. He claims that nothing will ever change, so why give white people the satisfaction of dehumanizing black people any longer. The name is also ironic in the sense that Nick’s dreamlike rise from playing basketball in a playground to playing in college and supposedly receiving an education is a dream for many people. Specifically, for those in the grips of poverty and with few opportunities, this pathway of becoming skilled at sports could be one of the only ways to get an education. This is ironic because even though Nick is supposedly living the dream, he is plagued by depression because the dream is not at all like how it was painted. Psycho Loco is another interesting character in The White Boy Shuffle. While his name is unconventional to say the least, it does have an ironic meaning. Even though Psycho Loco is given a name which portrays him as psycho and loco, he is actually quite a down to earth guy. He’s one of the few people who stays away from Hillside, and when he does go there, he wears a radiation suit just in case the bomb drops while he’s there. How he expects the suit to protect him from the actual explosion, however, I do not know. In addition to this, we see him as an emotional character who has very regular and sometimes relatable reactions to many events. These three characters are not the only ones with easter eggs hidden in their names, but they do nicely represent the oftentimes ironic nature seen throughout the novel. Lots of the other characters with meanings behind their names were put in as jokes (Ms. Cegeny), but I’m sure that there are also others with more in-depth explanations behind their titles. As with Invisible Man, I’m glad that Beatty put extra care in to add these easter eggs, because I really enjoy finding and analyzing them.

Sethe's Tree and more...

Throughout Beloved, there are multiple references to Sethe’s back resembling a tree. For example, “It’s a tree, Lu. A chokecherry tree. See, here’s the trunk--it’s red and split wide open, full of sap, and this here’s the parting for the branches,” (Morrison 93). This quote from Amy is one of the first that paints an image of a tree on Sethe’s back. This is during Sethe’s escape from Sweet Home, and after she was brutally beat and abused by Schoolteacher’s nephews. The ‘tree’ in this case is describing the open wounds and lacerations on Sethe’s back from her recent experience with the nephews, and there are likely other scars on her back from her time as a slave as well. This tree on Sethe’s back was formed by slavery, which makes me think that it represents her past. Specifically, I think that her wounds are there to serve as a constant reminder of the dark side of Sweet Home. Along with this meaning, the vivid description of Sethe’s wounds give readers a better picture of the immense pain she had to go through along her journey to 124, which paints her to be an even more powerful and awe-inspiring character.

The other side of the tree is the fact that they are generally seen as beautiful parts of nature. Obviously, this is not what one would attribute towards Sethe’s time as a slave. Morrison chose a tree to represent the pain Sethe endured because it looks pretty on the outside. This is similar to Sweet Home because even though it seemed like a great place on the surface, it was filled with suffering, especially once Schoolteacher arrived. Even before Schoolteacher, however, it was still slavery and far from ideal. This is seen when Halle compares schoolteacher and Garner, “What they say is the same. Loud or soft,” (Morrison 231). Even though Garner may speak softer than schoolteacher and appear nicer, he is still a slave owner, which is a horrible trait no matter who you are.

The extra fact that I wanted to share is something I found very interesting, but wasn’t sure if it deserved a blog post of its own. When reading about what inspired Morrison to write Beloved, I found that it was actually based on a true story. There was an African American woman named Margaret Garner who escaped slavery but, similar to Sethe, killed her child in order to prevent her from returning to slavery. I was wondering if any of you find it shocking that the story of Sethe killing her child is based in reality? I think it adds an aspect of realism to Beloved because many readers likely pass the premise of a mother murdering her own daughter off as something that is completely absurd, but it was actually based in truth. This makes the novel just that much more potent because readers suddenly see this truly horrible and disturbing scene of Sethe in the woodshed as something more than just fiction.

White Day, Black Night

“Dream Variation” by Langston Hughes is one of my favorite poems that we have discussed so far in class (shoutout to Eric for choosing it). It describes a dream world that, unlike most others, isn’t lightyears away from possibility, and the sentiments of the world are parts of life that I agree are important. The poem has two contrasting stanzas, with one focusing on day and the other on night. The stanza set during the day says that the narrator wants to be able to “whirl and to dance / Till the white day is done.” I find this line particularly interesting because the whirling and dancing could be interpreted in a couple different ways. First and foremost, dancing is generally seen as something that’s done in times of celebration, and it’s often accompanied with happiness and laughter. This goes along with the dream aspect of the poem, because the narrator wishes for a life where he can be himself and dance to his heart’s content among others during the day. The other, much more negative, look at this line points to the common theme of African American people being forced to put on a show for white people by dancing and playing submissive. When looking at these lines in this light, I thought of the dancing Sambo doll from Invisible Man. Personally, due to the poem being the narrator’s dream for life, I’m assuming that the dancing and whirling is a symbol for the narrator wanting to be able to be himself, but Hughes likely used these words in particular to offer up the dual meaning and to show how life is outside of his dream.

The stanza set at night shows the other part of the narrator’s dream: being able to relax in solitude and with others. I think that this stanza is part of the dream because even though the narrator wants to be able to express himself in the white day, he doesn’t want to leave behind the special feeling of belongingness that he gets from the night. We see this idea when the narrator says, “While night comes on gently, / Dark like me.” The narrator feels relaxed in the darkness of night. I think that the night has more than just a literal meaning in this poem as well. The night could also represent the narrator’s African American friends and family who he still wants to be able to spend time with after the white day. Just because the narrator is now able to express himself during the day and around white people, doesn’t mean that he would want to lose being able to express himself at night too.

The third and last stanza glues the previous two together, and I think that its main purpose is to show that the narrator wants both aspects of life to coexist. He wants to be able to both be himself during the day and relax during the night. One change is that the last line is now “Black like me” rather than “Dark like me” from the previous stanza. This stresses the racial aspect of the night’s meaning and goes along with the idea of the narrator wanting to be able to spend time among those who share his culture during both night and day.

Hurston Compared To Ellison

Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison chose some similar techniques for telling their stories, but their narration is also starkly different. One commonality between the two that was mentioned in class is the fact that they both start the story off with the end. In Ellison’s case, we are introduced to the narrator with a sense of confusion, and readers are instantly pulled in by his strange personality and actions. Similarly, Hurston starts us off with a mystery, but one of contrasting nature. Their eyes were watching god begins with “So the beginning of this was a woman and she had come back from burying the dead” (Hurston 1). Where is the woman returning from? What does “burying the dead” mean? We don’t know the answers to either of these questions, and just like Invisible Man, we’re set up to search for the answers.

A difference that is purely based on the structure of the storytelling is the fact that Invisible Man is written in first-person, whereas their eyes were watching god is written in third-person. The fact that their eyes were watching god is written in third-person is strange because the novel is Janie telling her story. It feels weird having Janie’s story diluted through the narrator’s voice because it takes away some of her personality, especially when compared to Invisible Man. The narrator of Invisible Man is filled with passion, and it’s a rarity when we don’t know how or what he’s feeling. The narrator of their eyes were watching god being unknown makes me wonder what his or her background is and who they align with. As of right now, I’m leaning towards the mindset that the narrator is just an omnipotent, uncaring figure. I haven’t felt that the narrator is for or against Janie in any of the scenes.

One of the largest differences between the two is in the language used in the narration. Hurston uses flowery, poetic, and oftentimes confusing language. Reading her writing is like going through a poem, and there is a constant struggle to find out which passages have meanings and what their meanings are. On the other hand, the majority of Ellison’s scenes have underlying messages, so it’s easier to catch on and delve further into the novel. Reading Invisible Man first has helped me to pick up on some of the symbols Hurston has hidden in her writing, but I can’t help but feel like I’m missing most of them. I think that their eyes were watching god is a book that is better the second time through. That isn’t to say I’m not enjoying it, but Hurston is not making it easy for me to discover her intent for writing the book and what the novel’s many themes are and mean. This is all subject to change, however, considering we’re only about halfway through the book, and many ideas will likely become clearer as we complete the circle and return to where the novel started.

The Bottomless Briefcase

The narrator receives a prize from doing an exemplary job during his speech in chapter one. It’s described as “a gleaming calfskin brief case” (Ellison 32). The narrator carries this case along with him throughout his journey to New York, as well as during his time working for the Brotherhood in New York. At the beginning, the briefcase contains a scholarship to college, but the narrator’s grandfather’s voice echoes in his head that in reality the document is merely one more way that white people are keeping the narrator running. This document, however, is not the only artifact found in the narrator’s briefcase. Along his path through life he encounters strange objects, many of them with special meanings, and places them inside his briefcase. These objects represent all the ideas and baggage weighing his thoughts down throughout his travels.

One of the first items he stows away inside his briefcase is a shattered coin bank from Mary Rambo’s house. The bank was designed as an extremely racist and stereotypical black man that one could pull his hand down and the coin on his hand would pop into his mouth. Upon noticing this horrid bank, the narrator is immediately enraged and he wastes little time in taking it and smashing it against the floor. With the money spilled across the floor and the bank in pieces, he hurriedly shoves it all into his briefcase, scared that Mary might see. The fact that it is a bank points to it having significance as a symbol for wealth. The narrator sees it when he’s about to leave to go start his job with the Brotherhood, which just so happens to be a very lucrative job. This shows that the narrator is selling out and it connects him to the bank in the way that he is just another person who wants money. On the other hand, one can look at the bank mainly focusing on the racist aspect of it. The narrator is being weighed down by this obscene object as he heads towards his first day of work with the Brotherhood, which is an organization that claims to be post-race. This raises questions in the reader’s head about whether or not the Brotherhood is really what they claim to be. We quickly learn that despite the Brotherhood claiming to be post-race, they still ask questions regarding the narrator’s eligibility for his job such as “don’t you think he should be a little blacker?” (Ellison 303). The Brotherhood may have good intentions, but their ideas and actions are still clouded and impacted by their longing to be an organization that is remembered for many years to come.

Another object the narrator keeps with him is Brother Tarp’s broken leg chain. Brother Tarp gives it to the narrator and tells the narrator his story of how he escaped from the South, where he was part of a chain gang. He says that he snapped the chain himself. At this point, we’ve seen another leg chain: the one Bledsoe has at the college. The major difference between the two is that Tarp’s is battered and broken whereas the one Bledsoe has is fully intact. The chain Bledsoe has represents how he is still a slave in some ways. He forces himself to suck up to every powerful white person around him in order to get by in life and make money. On the other hand, Brother Tarp seperated himself from slavery and now is working to, or at least he believes he’s working to, craft a post-racial society where discrimination is a thing of the past. The fact that the narrator carries it around with him shows how he is free of slavery. It also shows how he isn’t necessarily free from racism, but he is above it to some extent. His mind has been opened, and this broken leg chain represents his transition from being chained to doing what white people want him to do, to being more inclined towards his grandfather’s approach of making the white people think you’re doing what they want but secretly maintaining your pride and personality.

The latest object the narrator places in his briefcase is the Sambo doll that Clifton was selling. The doll itself is a racist depiction of a black man, and it is seen prancing around before a crowd of people on the street. The narrator later realizes that the doll was actually being controlled by Clifton with thin black strings. Despite one thinking that strings would be quite visible in broad daylight, apparently nobody in the crowd could see the strings, including the narrator. He only notices them afterwards when he is examining the doll. This lack of seeing of the strings shows how people are trained to accept black people being controlled as normal. This especially pertains to the narrator because soon after the collection of this doll, he is bombarded with criticism from the Brotherhood. They blatantly say that he was not hired to think but rather to merely act as a figurehead; however, this doll is not solely a bad symbol. The specific doll the narrator picks up is the one that he spat on and was trampled by the crowd. This shows that despite the narrator being controlled, he denounces the idea of being controlled, and it’s also soon after this that he adopts his grandfather’s way of thinking. The duality of this symbol’s message is also shown upon the narrator’s first glance at it. Whereas he immediately felt ire towards the bank and shattered it, the narrator was first filled with a sense of wonder and puzzlement along with anger when looking at the doll. Overall, the Sambo doll has both positive and negative connotations.

Whether it was starting the first day with the Brotherhood, or the major shift in the narrator’s perspective, these objects that the narrator carries around with him each came along with a major plot element or change when they first appeared. They all have some sort of meaning that weighs down the narrator’s thoughts, and impact his every decision and action throughout the story. For now, are there any objects that the narrator carries around with him either in his briefcase or on his person that I missed? As for the rest of the book, I wonder if the narrator will find a new object with a meaning that is purely positive, unlike the other ones he has found so far. One thought to leave you with, we see the narrator pull out his knife in the prologue, “And in my outrage I got out my knife and prepared to slit his throat” (Ellison 4), so I wonder if the fact that he began carrying a weapon around with him has any meaning?

Names in Invisible Man

As mentioned in class, there are names in Invisible Son that allude to other people and their works. For example, Emerson is first mentioned by Norton when he asks the narrator if he’s “gotten to Emerson yet?” Ralph Waldo Emerson is a famous author who wrote the well known essay Self-Reliance. When Norton asks the narrator if he’s reached Emerson yet in school Ellison is teasing that the narrator hasn’t yet reached self reliance. This idea is furthered later on when we meet another Emerson: Emerson Jr. This man tries to tell the narrator all about what is going on around him and what life actually is. He’s trying to take down the curtain around the narrator’s self contained, submissive world. After this meeting, the narrator finally gets some self reliance and goes out to get his own job. Emerson, however, is not the only one whose name can be analyzed.

Bledsoe is another important character is the story, and his name has meaning as well. Bledsoe comes from an old byname which means cheerful. This meaning is ironic because we eventually see that Bledsoe is anything but cheerful and he treats the narrator horribly. His name acts as a mask that hides his true nature. This idea of names representing the fake side people show goes along well with the idea of invisibility and hiding your ideas and feelings.

A name with a very comedic meaning to it is Norton. Norton is a surname that was first used in the Middle Ages as a way to show where someone was from. Norton literally means ‘north town’. This is a very comedic reference made by Ellison because Norton’s entire identity is the fact that he’s from the north. He’s just another rich white man coming down from the north to help out the narrator’s school. This is all the narrator sees when looking at him.

Overall, names serve as masks in Invisible Man, but their uses vary. On one hand, the name Emerson is used to allude to a famous work that adds meaning to the story. Bledsoe’s name represents the facade of happiness and contentment he puts on. Lastly, Norton’s name shows his entire persona and character. While each serves a slightly different purpose, they all have a hint of comedy to them, and I can’t help but wonder if they were mainly put in to reward the attentive reader.

Name Information: Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Invisibility: Power or Weakness

In most works of fiction invisibility is seen as a power. In Invisible Man, however, Ellison subverts this common assumption and makes us see and consider another side of this common superhero ability. Is invisibility really a power, and what are the different types of invisibility? Read on to find out.

The obvious first step here is to define the difference between literal and figurative invisibility. Actual invisibility is commonly found in comic books as a superhuman power that allows the user to make their body completely invisible. On the other hand, a figurative invisibility, which is most likely what Ellison is going for in Invisible Man, is the result of someone not being seen by others as themselves, but rather as a generality or some sort of assumption. What I mean by this is that someone is figuratively invisible if they’re immediately disregarded and shoved into a stereotype box by everyone. To be able to more accurately compare these two types of invisibility, we have to set some parameters around the literal invisibility. Namely the fact that most iterations of this power let the user become invisible at will; in comparison, the figurative invisibility is everlasting as long as the people around the invisible person continue to stereotype him or her. With this being said, the following comparisons will assume the use of literal invisibility is more or less irreversible.

The following quote shows how debilitating invisibility can be, “You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you’re a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it’s seldom successful” (Ellison 4). After being invisible for too long one longs to be recognized and seen as a person again. This leads me to wonder if the narrator of Invisible Man will ever feel this way. I think that overall he likes being invisible seeing how much of a kick he gets out of it, but deep down there is likely some part of him that wants to live a life recognized by others. This example shows the most negative aspect of invisibility: the crushing solitude. This is an apparent feature of both literal and figurative invisibility. Eventually the user or person affected will want to be seen again but it’s out of their control. I think that Ellison wanted to convey this message of hopelessness because some people may say that the narrator of Invisible Man should just not be invisible anymore. This is very invalid because no matter what the narrator does he’ll be put into a box. While this is a bleak part of invisibility, other negatives of invisibility have also been lightly touched on so far in Invisible Man.

The entire scene at the brothel in Invisible Man shows one of the biggest faults of invisibility. Many of the people from the insane asylum can actually be seen as very self aware instead of insane, and the reason they’re this way in the first place is because the know they’re invisible. The don’t care as much about their actions and they know that no matter what they do, most people still won’t see them. This extreme self awareness leads them to doing and saying lots of things that most sane people normally wouldn’t. This is an idea that’s commonly seen with literal invisibility. I imagine that if a person got the ability to go invisible most would use it to do whatever they thought of, no matter how illegal. There’s a sense of empowerment and invincibility that comes with being invisible. We see this early on in the story when the narrator nearly kills a man and then runs away laughing because he knows nobody will even think twice about who did it. Most people will automatically ignore the occurrence and brush it off as some stereotypical guy who attacked the man. Another example is how the patients treated Mr. Norton. They mock, drag around, and joke about him excessively and are generally very disrespectful which is completely unheard of considering Mr. Norton’s standing as a rich white man. While invisible, you don’t have a filter.

These two angles of comparison between literal and figurative invisibility show how close they actually are. It’s sad to think that actually being invisible can be so similar to being stereotyped. Despite being conceptually different, both have similar effects of making the person affected either feel extreme loneliness and strive to become noticed or spiral downwards and begin to exploit the boons of invisibility and use it irresponsibly. As an ending, seeing the horrible results stereotyping can lead to, think twice before making an assumption. In other words, don’t judge a book by its cover.