The Sellout

Place The Sellout in conversation with another one of Paul Beatty’s works, like his first novel The White Boy Shuffle (1996). How does Beatty use humor to confront themes like race and personal identity in the other work? What do Gunnar Kaufman, White Boy Shuffle’s main character, and Me have in common? How are they different?

Beatty is also a poet, and Me’s joke, “Why All That Abbott and Costello Vaudeville Mess Doesn’t Work in the Black Community” (187), is a poem in Beatty’s 1994 poetry collection, Joker, Joker, Deuce. Read Beatty’s poems and compare the verses to the prose in The Sellout. What similar techniques does he use in both forms? What possibilities does each form offer that the other does not?

Beatty includes made-up rap lyrics in The Sellout, but many real-life songs confront the fraught themes that Beatty tackles. Listen to Kanye West’s “New Slaves“ (2013) or Jay-Z’s “The Story of O.J.“ (2017), and describe how the song relates to Beatty’s book.

Beatty mentions many writers and thinkers, from Franz Kafka to Booker T. Washington to Toni Morrison. Research one of the authors, and discuss how they’re inclusion relates to the themes of The Sellout.

Charles Dickens is a famous Victorian author. Research Dickens and discuss his relevance to the book’s themes. What does Dickens, Me’s community, have to do with Dickens, the English novelist? How does Dickens’s work, which typically focuses on underdogs and critiques authority, connect to Beatty’s novel?

Me likens comedy to war—a comment that applies to Beatty’s comic novel as well. How does Beatty use comedy to unsettle the discourse around race in America? To what effect? Use specific instances of comedy in the text to support your answer.

Imagine Me is going to meet with a group of Black Lives Matter leaders. How do you think Me might respond to their activism? Use evidence from the book to back up your claims. What would make the meeting a positive experience? What would lead to a negative exchange?

Foy Cheshire revises a number of classics. J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) becomes “The Point Guard in the Rye,” and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) turns into “The Great Blacksby” (150). What motivates him to make these revisions, and why does Me consider them ridiculous if not actually harmful?