Postmodernism in Tuff

Tuff by Paul Beatty contains many aspects of Postmodernism literature. Beatty uses the response to realism and attempts to disrupt assumptions about certain stereotypes through his characters. The characters in this novel all seem to be based off of some stereotype of society. Beatty simply uses these stereotypes as a base for the characters and then adds elements to them to make them differ from the assumptions presented.
Winston is a great example of this. Winston is presented to the reader as an underprivileged drug-dealer in Harlem. However, as the novel progresses and Winston's character is more developed the reader is able to differentiate him from the stereotype that they are presented with through society. Winston becomes this underprivileged drug-dealer that has a family and who wants a better life for them. He becomes a person who is deeply interested and educated about film and has aspirations in his life. Although Winston still portrays aspects of his stereotype most of them are outweighed by the things that make him different.
This use of Postmodernism in the novel brings about the fact that there is no way to represent stereotypes accurately. There is no way to do this because of the complexity of people and their lives and circumstances. There is not one singular definition for any of the stereotypes out there.