Sag Harbor is a socially rich book with so many different themes, but what really caught my eye was the dynamic of belonging in Sag Harbor. The book is a coming-of-age novel but it emphasizes that how these characters are shaped and feel belonging is always, in some way, entirely conditional. There is this on-going separation between those who are locals and those who stay over the summer. For Benji, he isn't a full-time local, but isn't entirely an outsider either. This dynamic of an in-between feeling fuels the fire for Benji's coming-of-age narrative and through it shows just how complex community and identity can be.
Benji and his friends are what some may call "summer kids", they migrate to Sag Harbor each year but stay only for the summer months. They fall in-between the line of not quite tourists, but not quite residents either. In one scene, Benji describes how the town feels once the summer crowd arrives. His speech separates himself in sort of a "us verses them" type of way. Benji talks about the grocery store becoming packed and familiar places suddenly feel unfamiliar. He is very aware of this shift and him and his friends know how to navigate it. Benji describes the pattern of summer: early June belongs to them, but by July, the town is overrun with new people. He shines light onto how the place is shared, but never equally.
One clear example that I saw in Sag Harbor about this tension comes when Benji tries to reinvent himself. He ditches his braces and experiments with how he presents himself to others. There's an extra layer to his reinvention that goes past just teenage experimentation- these changes are a reflection of Benji's awareness of the different roles he places depending on his environment. In the city, he is one person, but in Sag Harbor he is someone else. Someone cooler, freer. However, even in the place that is supposed to feel like home to Benji, he can't help but constantly measure how much he fits in. At one point he reflects on how some neighbors are starting to sell their houses to wealthier outsiders, which hint at changes that will reshape the community in the years to come. These small moments raise the bigger question, what does it really mean to belong somewhere, especially if you're just there for less than half the year?
I think Sag Harbor does an amazing job unraveling the feelings associated with this in-between space, local and newcomer, and between past, present, and future. Whitehead delivers a story that is deeply personal and relatable due to this feeling of nostalgia. Sag Harbor reminds readers of the complexity of belonging through Benji striving to fit into the world around him.
Great blog! This book does a great job showing how it feels to be in two worlds at once and feel like you belong and don't belong in both worlds. I think you did a wonderful job unpacking the specific ways in which it does this.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting topic, especially when you think about all the nuances of Benji's life that make this a more complex identity to have. I mean, Benji talks about his grandparents being part of that first generation of Sag Harbor, which seems like it could give him another sense of connection to this place. I really like that you brought up Benji's reinvention plans as they show us how he's trying to utilize his relationship with Sag Harbor to change himself.
ReplyDeleteHi Alyssa!! You did a good job at articulating how this sort of liminal space occurs with Benji; he's not exactly a local, but to call him a tourist would be an overstatement. His reinvention, as you described, show how aware he is of this dynamic, and he tries his best to fit in, even if he's only there for a couple months. Great post!!
ReplyDeleteYou really nail the "in-between" space that Benji and his crew occupy out in Sag. He clearly feels disdain for the "real" tourists, whereas he and his friends go back generations in this place. But they also feel contempt and pity for those who end up having to LIVE in Sag Harbor year-round. So they are both residents AND tourists, in a way. Whitehead makes a lot out of the fact that Benji knows this setting so well--check out the scene where he can tell what corners they're turning as they approach the house for the first time, even though he has his eyes closed. Also check out the Benji-specific hand-drawn map of Sag Harbor in the frontmatter--this is "his" Sag Harbor, with landmarks specific to the book, not "the" Sag Harbor itself. We see this dynamic in full effect when Benji works at Jonni Waffle--working at a local restaurant would make you a resident, not a tourist, and he and his friends have a ton of observations about these pathetic specimens that parade through the door desperate for some ice cream. (I've hinted at the fact that I have some direct experience with these dynamics--I grew up in a Jersey Shore beach town, and I actually *lived there all year round*, the very prospect Manhattanite Benji finds so horrifying. We had a complex relationship with the tourists--all from NYC and north Jersey--that filled our beaches every summer. We called them "Bennies" and gave them wrong directions to the Parkway just to mess with them, we complained about their mess and their noise incessantly, and yet we all knew that the local economy completely depended on their dollars.)
ReplyDeleteHi Alyssa! I think this is a really interesting idea that is super prevalent throughout this novel. It makes for a much more interesting coming-of-age narrative because we see Benji in this weird in-between space that isn't truly his home but still holds lots of sentimental value to him. I think this is even more interesting when we take Benji's old house into account, because that's the place Benji truly feels like is his home.
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