Semester Synthesis

Sorry To Bother You was an incredibly impactful end to a semester of shocking conclusions. Every novel we read this year has been mind-blowing in its own way, each with its own flavor of political commentary and each with its unique narrator. I was thinking about how this ending film compares to the novels on our syllabus, and how this type of political commentary fits into the conversations we have been having this semester.

I’ll start with Native Son. Personally, as we watched this film, I got Bigger vibes from Cash. Especially in Steve Lift’s mansion, it felt like Cash had absolutely no control of the situation, like he was just being manipulated by the white people around him to do what they say. Steve Lift could be seen as a sort of Mr. Dalton-esque figure, who hires Cash and treats him a little like a charity case. In addition, the final sequence of Cash turning into an equisapien, the feeling of hopelessness and betrayal reminded me a lot of Bigger running away from the mob across the rooftops. Both scenes had a similar adrenaline-inducing effect for me. Unlike Native Son though, Sorry To Bother You gives Cash a lot more agency, both throughout the novel, and after the hopeless reveal: whereas Bigger largely cann’t help himself after he is caught, Cash at least takes revenge after he is turned into an equisapien.

In class today we were talking about the similarities of Sorry To Bother You to Invisible Man. This makes a lot of sense to me, Cash and the narrator do go through very similar experiences, especially with white people – both are asked to work with white people to become a revolutionary leader (of course in Sorry To Bother You Cash is asked to be a fake revolutionary and actually work for the establishment, but they are similar), they both join radical organizations (the labor union and the Brotherhood), and both start the novel with a “pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps” mentality which is then changed during the course of the plot. In addition, just plot-wise, both feature a surreal factory (Liberty Paints vs Worryfree), which I though was interesting. Of course, the most obvious difference between the two is Cash’s possession of a personality, and seeming awareness of the world around him. Things don’t happen to Cash, Cash makes them happen.

The next novel on our syllabus was Their Eyes Were Watching God, doesn’t lend itself to an immediate comparison to this film. But they do have some similarities, largely the themes of love and relationships, which we didn’t get to talk about in class much, but Cash’s love for Detroit is a huge motivator in the film, similar to Janie’s love for Teacake. Detroit mainly makes me think about the conversations about feminism we had surrounding that novel. Detroit is like everything Janie wishes to be – strong, independent, and unapologetic in her participation in “men’s business”. If anything, Detroit is a little like Zora Neale Hurston, or at least the perception of her I got from that documentary we watched.

Next is Beloved, also a novel that doesn’t immediately resonate with this film, but still has some connections. Obviously, slavery and the depiction of slavery features very prominently in Beloved, but more specifically the Garners’ slavery that “wasn’t so bad” was a pretty big topic of discussion for our class. We came to the conclusion basically that any slavery is too much, and the whole concept of “nice” slavery is absurd, because at the end of the day, the Garners still owned people and those people’s identities were still owned by the Garners. This could relate to the idea of Worryfree, as it is basically a form of slavery that is “not that bad” because it is voluntary. I feel like there can’t even be a debate as to if Worryfree is moral – essentially taking someone’s entire adult life is evil however you spin it, even if the person signed a contract legally allowing you to do it.

Finally, White Boy Shuffle had a lot of resonance with this film for me, probably because it is more contemporary, and because the method of protest is more similar than the other novels. As somebody pointed out in class, Sorry To Bother You uses satire as critique, rather than a direct confrontation of the issue, similar to White Boy Shuffle. The two works have a similar tone and structure, where they start with a slightly altered version of reality, but by the end of the novel, that version strays a significant distance from our world and the line between realistic fiction and fantasy blur. In addition, both works are funny, unlike most novels we read this semester, there are bits of both that I think are just meant to be so absurd they are amusing. In addition, both works get at code switching (albeit in different ways). Most importantly, I think both works implicate the reader by the end of the novel. With Sorry To Bother You it’s easy – it forces the reader to think about our current world and how close or far we are from the reality the movie is depicting. In White Boy Shuffle, we talked in class how by the end of the novel, the reader is implicated in making Gunnar feel like a performer. For both works, I think a reader (especially a white one) comes away with a lot of introspection and guilt about contributing to the society that the work is depicting.

Finally, to tie all these together, there was one theme I noticed across most of the novels we read, in addition to Sorry To Bother You, and that is the idea of black people as performers, and the minstrel-like characteristics of black people performing. This was a key object of our discussions throughout the year, from Mary asking Bigger to sing her and Jan a song, to the narrator being asked to perform spirituals, to the minstrel-y aspects of Their Eyes Were Watching God, to all of Gunnar and Scoby’s struggles, and finally to the uncomfortable rap scene in Sorry To Bother You. The prevalence of this theme across generation and situation I think is telling of American society, and how although we have improved on some fronts, we still have a long way to go towards true racial equality.

And with that, I’ll sign off on another semester of English class. It’s been fantastic listening and talking in this class, and I think I (especially speaking as a white person) have learned a lot, so thank you for some great discussions! Happy finals to everyone reading this, and soon enough, happy winter break :)

PS. I loved the soundtrack of Sorry To Bother You, and I found a Spotify playlist of it here, just thought I would share that with people: https://open.spotify.com/user/12163874010/playlist/6l3qI64OVVhKFlra53mHy7?si=zI_3CbPpRH2zJY6Wv9nhIw