The relatability of Sag Harbor
Reading this book I just kept thinking about how Colson Whitehead does a good job of making this book relatable to everyone. Even though many of Benji’s experiences are about his blackness and the racism he endures, there’s something that anyone can relate to. At some point or another we all have a crummy first job, and we all have to navigate tricky relationships with our friends. Every family has a side they don’t show the public, and everyone with siblings knows what it’s like to feel insecure about your position or a sense of competition with them. The fact that this book was set in the 80s yet talks about issues that teens face nowadays and have faced for years makes it such an important book to read for all ages.
I think that because anyone can relate to Benji in some way or another the whole book feels real. Benji feels like a real person, which is probably mostly because he was based off of Whitehead, and that gives the reader a deeper sense of connection with him. Throughout the book the depictions of situations in the book feel so realistic that the reader connects with them more. Benji’s struggles with his father were particularly poignant even if you haven’t had the same experiences with your own father. The fact that Benji didn’t have anyone to talk to about his struggles felt raw to me and I’m sure most others felt the same way. With the pandemic this year I feel like so many people have been suffering silently and trying to navigate their feelings by themselves. Even though so many people are feeling the same way, it’s hard to reach out and talk about our problems. That’s kind of how Benji felt, too. Both his mom and brother were experiencing his dad’s outbursts and they knew what was going on, yet didn’t feel like they could talk about it.
Benji’s feelings of not being black enough because of how he was raised leave him with turmoil that really tear at the reader’s heartstrings. He’s feeling like his brother has grown up before he did even though his brother is younger, and like he doesn’t have a deep connection with his race because he goes to a white private school. There’s so much going on in his life and throughout it all, he doesn’t have anyone to talk to.
I think this book really makes the reader empathize with the characters, but as real people rather than a fictional portrayal in a story and that’s why this book is so important.
Yeah that is really interesting. For Benji I think the biggest part of his coming of age is forming his identity. Now identity means different things for different people, but for Benji, coming into his black identity is super important. Seeing that his brother kind of surpassed him in that makes him feel torn, as you said, but maybe he'll realize that he'll come into his identity at his own time rather than playing into premature/performative coming of age that the other boys do.
ReplyDeleteYou say a lot in this blog post but I think that the fact that there are so many different things to touch on really shows how fleshed out Ben is as a character. He has all of these different struggles and things going on but also a lot of personality and life and I think that you're right, this does make him feel like a very real character.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. I think that even though I didn't experience a lot of the things that Benji experienced in the book, I found that I could still relate to some of the ideas. For example, I can definitely relate to the general feeling of nostalgia that seems to be a part of this whole book, and a lot of the experiences I remember were not necessarily moments that were important. Even though a large part of the book was about Benji being generally bored during the summer and having the occasional adventures, I found it very easy to read because it reminded me of my own experiences.
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