How I relate to Benji's Character

 Sag Harbor: Whitehead, Colson: 9780307455161: Amazon.com: Books

How I relate to Benji's Character 

    We have read many books in Coming of Age novel, and out of all of these books I have liked Sag Harbor and Black Swan Green the most. The reason being I could relate more to both of the character since they were both boys starting to become teenagers. But, I could relate a lot more to the protagonist of Sag Harbor Benji. Since Benji is a African-American who struggles fitting with his identity especially in the beginning of the book. The reason why I can relate to this character is because I am also a African-American who struggles a bit with fitting into my culture. In this blog post, I want to dive a bit into Benji's character and him trying to fit into sag harbor and African-American culture.

    One of the major similarities between me and Benji is that Benji as well as me both went into private schools that didn't have a much black people. We can tell in the story that Benji going to a private school with not as much black culture as well as Sag Harbor culture is shown though Benji not knowing black historical figures "One of my Uncles would be over and mention Marcus Garvey and I'd ask, "Who's that?," as the eyes of all the adults in the room slitted for a sad round of tsk tsking." (Whitehead 15) While my parents and my family members won't get disappointed when I do know who a black hisotrical figure is. This experience reminds me of a story my parents told me. They told me that when I was in kindergarten, in music we were learning about Louis Armstrong, and I didn't know who he was. Later when my parents came to pick me up they ran into the music teacher and she said "I was surprised your boys (me and Akeel) didn't know who Louis Armstrong was." It was like knowing historical black figures was expected for me. (Do you think I should've knew who Louis Armstrong was in kindergarten let me know if you comment)

    The last thing I want to talk about is slang. I am not going to into a deep dive into the history of slang words but, I think that me personally growing up in more of private school with more white people. Like I said I missed out on a lot of culture and slang was one of them. I know it is not a big moment in the book but since it was there I wanted to mention it. "Hanging out with NP was to start catching up on nine months of black slang and other sundry soulful artifacts I'd missed out on in my "predominantly white" private school" (Whitehead 27). I was always insecure about myself because I didn't speak like a "normal black person." I have learned to be more confident in myself. To finish, I just really liked how this book has so much in common to me and my life as a black teenager. I am very excited to finish this book and I hope Benji comes of age at the end.

    

      

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