The White Boy Shuffle makes a statement about the power of one person to influence an entire society. It sends a message to its readers that a person's life can be significant or insignificant based on how proactive and dedicated the person is. The protagonist of Shuffle, Gunnar, is taken from a prosperous, white community into a poor, black community where gang violence is prevalent and differences are not tolerated. Ultimately, because of Gunnar's individuality, he is able to rise above society's racism and violence and become a voice for the community.
Gunnar rises out of the gang environment of Los Angeles and becomes a basketball-playing poet. His relatively white perspectives on life hold him back in his new, harsh community, and the bullies of the school victimize him, "Gang affiliation? I didn't even have any friends yet. My sisters and I had no idea how to navigate our way around this hardscrabble dystopia" (48). His place as a black male in West Los Angeles does not provide an environment where he is supposed to succeed, as shown by a harsh introduction to his new school, "Boy, you know if you find yourself having trouble getting to and from class, the school provides an escort service and you can be placed in protective custody" (61).Yet, he becomes the first of his neighborhood to go to college, and the first to have a chance at success. These various triumphs of Gunnar's allow him to gain influence in the black community. His speech at Boston University proclaiming that blacks do not truly believe in ending racism around the world if they are not willing to die, and the response of the black community to his message, show the extent of Gunnar's influence, " `What we need is some new leaders. Leaders who won't apostatize like cowards. Some [people] who are ready to die!' The crowd's response startled me. "You! You! You!' they chanted, pointing their fingers in the air, proclaiming me king of the blacks" (200). Because of his words about black martyrdom, many students, including Gunnar's best friend, kill themselves. Through giving Gunnar the power to control the life or death of his followers, Paul Beatty sends several messages to his readers about the power of the individual: anyone from anywhere can succeed at any time, adversity can be overcome, and one person's words or actions can affect other people. Beatty paints a picture of a young, black man discovering his black identity, and encouraging others to do the same.
This book was on my summer reading list, and if it were not for that, I would most likely not have read it. It was short and easy to read, but it sent a powerful message about society today and the roles that each individual plays. The writing was not particularly sophisticated, and the characters were three dimensional, except for a few minor characters. The plotline was believable, and the vivid descriptions of life in West Los Angeles show the hardships of those that live there, "I often marveled at the unique photosynthesis that allowed the fig, peach, and lemon trees to thrive in a dim climate where it often rained dead cats and dogs, rotted fish, and droplets of piss" (45). I did not enjoy this book to some degree because I have some personal disagreements with the message this book sends to its readers. Beatty suggests that encouraging people to do militant things to themselves, such as suicide, is what a black hero does. Beatty supports the idea that the racism of whites is what is holding the black community back, and that blacks have not done anything to continue racial problems. However, as shown by Barrack Obama's candidacy for president, our society is changing for the better, and racial equality is being realized without drastic measures, such as suicide and violence. As opposed to Beatty's view that blacks need to take matters into their own hands to solve racial problems, I believe that blacks and whites should work together to achieve racial equality. The appeal in this book lies in its humor, and watching Gunnar's character develop. If you are looking for a quick, thought-provoking read, and you want to read something easy, then this is the book for you.

A friend of mine gave me this book, she said I might like it. I can remember taking it home and not putting it down for 3 days. Luckily at that time i was in college and worked at a book store so I could read while at work. The language in this book draws you in. Its all at once, hilarious, artistic and thought provoking.

A friend of mine gave me this book, she said I might like it. I can remember taking it home and not putting it down for 3 days. Luckily at that time i was in college and worked at a book store so I could read while at work. The language in this book draws you in. Its all at once, hilarious, artistic and thought provoking.

Taken literally, this book is very bizarre. Interpretting the symbolism required a little more brain power than I wanted to put in with free-time reading. However, we used this in our book club; almost everyone else liked it, and there was a lot of discussion.

Paul Beatty's novel The White Boy Shuffle is about a young black boy who, after his mom feels that his growing up in "white" society is detrimental to his and his sisters racial identity decides to move to a Los Angeles suburb. Throughout the novel, Gunnar is constantly struggling to find his identity. Beatty portrays Gunnar's identification struggle by revealing the stereotypes that society places on the black community and the stereotypes that they place on themselves. At one point in the novel, Gunnar struggles escaping from "white" language and has to constantly work on maintaining the slang of the community. However, the stereotypes in the novel aren't limited to "black" and "white" as there are stereotypes about Latino's, Korean's etc. throughout the novel.
Throughout the novel, Gunnar begins to realize that he has the ability to be a talented poet. I found this part interesting because the language within the novel itself is at times poetic and can read like a prose about the social stereotypes. Also, the language of the novel can be at times difficult and confusing. As a native Montanan, I was unaware of some of the terminology throughout the novel. However, once I began to surpass the challenging language of the novel, I was able to laugh at the humor that Beatty illuminates through his satire about social labels.
I would recommend this novel to people that are looking for a challenging novel and interested in a fresh viewpoint on racial labels. The novel for me was difficult to get in to originally, but once I started to understand its purpose, it became extremely intriguing to me. I still don't understand many parts of the novel, especially the ending, but I think that was part of Beatty's purpose. He created an unpredictable narrator to tell the fictional story of a boy growing up surrounded by stereotypes and I doubt I will ever fully understand the novel, but I still found it an interesting read.

I'd heard of The White Boy Shuffle from fellow classmates, but hadn't picked it up until I was required to read it for one of my college courses. The novel was at first difficult to get into, due to the complexity of the language and the ideas presented. The text at times is like a poem and has a rhythmic pattern throughout making social satirical commentary on just about everything. From the first sentence of chapter one, "bluesy earthy folksy denim-overalls noble-in-the -face-of-cracker-racism aw shucks Pulitzer-Prize-winning protagonist mojo magic black man," the reader should be aware that the novel is full of these long drawn out statements that are making comment on our American society. Paul Beatty writes from the point of view of Gunnar Kaufman as he deals with trying to locate/understand his own identity. This text was at times difficult and overwhelming to understand exactly what Paul Beatty was commenting on, since it jumps from topic to topic. It is one of those novels that could be read every year and each time you read it a new idea is further brought to light. This novel is one I will surely read again and again.

I would recommend this novel to anyone interested in a text that is making a social commentary on our American society and the way in which African Americans and other cultures are discriminated against and stereotyped. The text besides making comment on our social circumstances, is also following the lead protagonist, Gunnar Kaufman, from his early schooling to college. The change for Gunnar begins as he moves from a predominately white neighborhood to a black neighborhood. Gunnar undergoes massive transformations, as he struggles to find out where he belongs and whom he truly is as he combats a world that is filled with never-ending stereotypes and labels.

The story details the life of a young boy who begins his life growing up "white" on the streets of Santa Monica until his Mom realizes he and his sisters are forsaking their culture in favor of "Leave it to Beaver-esque" endeavors. She promptly moves them to the mean streets of Hillside where the story begins anew.

The protagonist, who is responsible for the bulk of the narrating duties, finds a way to fit in and then finds a way to redefine what a black teenager, and finally a black man, should conform to... by not conforming at all.

Brilliantly written and poetic at times, the book shows the reader what it is like to be a black teenager growing up in a hostile environment without excluding anyone by using themes that all of us can relate to. You get to visit the ghetto without having to worry about drivebys.

Beatty does a remarkable job of silencing those of us who say, "Why can't those people just lift themselves by their bootstraps and become a banker or a forklift driver?" or "If their parent's just did a better job raising them, then maybe they could become more productive members of society". Beatty shows us there are shades of gray in these issues, removing the black and white - pun intended.

The novel The White Boy Shuffle is about an African American surfer named Gunnar Kaufman, this book starts when Gunnar is in the third grade and goes all the way to when he's in college it shows what happens when his mother moves them from Santa Monica to West Los Angeles and how he basically becomes the leader of his neighborhood of divided and oppressed citizens. I think that this book is very deep and mature in a good way. The way the author, Paul Beatty, really shows how the main character, Gunnar Kaufman, would react in certain situations really tells us about the character like in this sentence from the book "I spent entire days in the tent, snuggled up in a down sleeping bag reading Kant, Hegel, and the Greek tragedies by flashlight" (pg.54 Beatty). This sentence shows that he does care about school and would do what he can to make sure that he gets it done. But besides being deep and mature this novel is also very humorous. The author bases its humor on basically stereotypes and other funny topics, but its mostly stereotypes because Gunnar's neighborhood is made up of all cultures such as Hispanic, White, Black, and Japanese. I would recommend this book to anyone who's in high school and wants a good book because it is very good and deep, but some teenagers who aren't in high school like me should pick this up too but they might not understand most of the stuff they talk about in the book.

The book I'm reviewing is The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty. It's a fictional tale about a boy's life and how he changes in the course of his life. The boy's name is Gunnar Kaufman. We first meet Gunnar in the third grade which is the early years of his life and we follow Gunnar from grade school to high school and through college. Gunnar is an African American who first grows up in a mostly white populated neighborhood. And his mother didn't really want that for his black son and two daughters. So she moved the family away from the white neighborhood and moved the family into the projects (yes the projects). And you see how this transition affects his life.
I was really surprised that my high school library had this book. After reading this book as a high school student, I found a lot of words that I either never heard of or that I'm not familiar with. Almost every page had words outside of my vocabulary. I would expect this book to be in a college library but not in a high school library.
What I liked about this book is that it followed the characters life from childhood to adulthood. And it showed how he changed from this little boy into a grown adult man. What I didn't like is that in the beginning it had some flashbacks about Gunnar's old relatives and it didn't really have much to do with the story and also some parts of the story left me a little bored. I would recommended this book to anywhere who is interested in reading a book that makes you think but I must warn you this book isn't for the color blind (if you know what I mean).