Conclusions

Before beginning this class a few months ago, I was worried that every book we read would be just like the other. Yes, they might have all had the same basic story outline, but every single one brought something new to the table. I think every character showed a different part of what drives me. Things I feel are embodied to their extremes in each character but they all stress the same message. Be yourself. Don't try and conform just to get friends. Like Jason quickly found out, this is the easiest way to lose friends. Holden was himself but he ostracized everyone else who weren't exactly like him. Sylvie knows she's different but finds herself and is happy at the end of her novel. All of these characters just help further the point that all my teachers and parents are stressing as I look towards college. Life isn't what you plan it to be but it will work out.

Benji's Future

I think that Benji has a very bright future. Even though at the end of the novel he kind of deflates the moment, I think it is more heartwarming. This is the first novel that hasn't left the character at a point where their life has done a 180. Most of the time we see something change the protagonist completely, yet with Benji, we don't really see this. I feel that this novel is more geared towards the average reader. Not everyone will be able to find a definitive moment where they change. In Sag Harbor we see that events that may not have affected Benji so much in the past actually had a much deeper impact later in his life. But the novel still ends the way it begins. A kid looking to change.

Hip Hop Culture and Sag Harbor

I feel like after today's discussion in class it would be madness for me not to delve into the comparisons being made with Benji's summer and hip hop culture. You can see that when he and his friends are posing with guns and even said that they looked like they were a cover of a future N.W.A. album cover (probably mirroring 'Straight Outta Compton'), that they are acting out the form of rap known as "Gangsta Rap". Even though Benji and Ice Cube are from completely different backgrounds, I don't think that it is a coincidence that they both come to similar ideas. Just because Ice Cube grew up in a shitty part of California does not mean that he and Benji are facing completely different social issues. They are feeling pressured to be apart of an older generations culture and the struggles their parents had to face. They are being taught these 60's mentality's but having to deal with minor things like being patted on the head. I think that Ice Cube is kind of the version that Benji's coworkers wanted him to act like when confronted with something that was some "racist shit" like the head patting instance. I feel like these kind of moments are what led to the hyper masculinity of Gangsta Rap. It makes these kids feel like they have to validate themselves and Benji even comments that later on in life one of his friends even died to drug , and presumably, gang activity. It would have been impossible for Whitehead not to make the comparison and I am quite interested to see how it will play out in the rest of the novel. I think that it might take a larger hold of Benji and i think it also something that affects a lot of people coming of age. The fact that you can find something like music that relates to you in a much deeper way because it's discussing what you want to be or what you had to deal with.