Sag Harbor and Tribe Finding

    Okay, to be honest, it took me way longer than expected to think of a good topic for the blog. The book was not very appealing to me, much less so than Black Swan Green. But that's not a great topic for a blog post, so instead, I'll write about the one of the things that actually did resonate with me: a handful of sentences in Benji's only dialogue with his older sister.

    Benji views his sister, Elena, a lot like how Jason views Julia (read any other blog post for details on the latter pair). He sees Elena as a more mature, capable, and successful role model who has just emerged from their own big coming-of-age journey. Benji describes how she moved on from Sag Harbor to hold a "real summer job in the city," internships, and other activities in the wider world (281). Like D.B. in Catcher in the Rye (remember that?), Elena's this distant sibling who's "made it" and achieved independence from their parents. 

    On page 281, Benji also provides a quick summary of the development of Elena in recent years, starting at Elena's entry into high school, when she "unveiled a cool downtown persona that made the most blasé private-school deb seem like a Kentucky rube." From what I could decipher from the flurry of pop culture references that Benji rattles off, Elena begins to get invites from Manhattan nightclubs, listens to punk rock bands, and reads British music magazines. When she learns how to drive, Benji can recall her sneaking out of the house in the night on 'secret missions.' Eventually, Elena becomes "too hip, strange, and white acting" for Sag, and moves out. She congregates with her "fellow unlikelies," and as Benji excellently puts it "finds her tribe," a chosen social group whose 'subculture' appeals more to her than what she got at Sag Harbor. 

    Contrast this to Benji, whose tribe...isn't exactly one he found himself. Most of Benji's friends in Sag Harbor only are his friends because they all come to Sag Harbor. An even more extreme example would be Reggie, who was literally born into being paired up with Benji. Much of the first chapter talks about how Benji aims to distinguish himself from Reggie, and break the 'Benji and Reggie' pair that's characterized his life before the novel's events. And of course, Benji's also still stuck in his abusive household. 

    When Elena encounters Benji, her biggest piece of advice that she gives is a denouncement of her former household and an encouragement for Benji to get out. Elena wants Benji to find a tribe of his own, instead of settling for what's given to him, and (when he's ready) break out of the "Sag Harbor social group" that he has every summer. Whether that means leaving his friends he made at Sag Harbor fully behind, or just finding a home that isn't emotionally and physically toxic, Benji's biggest thing to look forward to in the next few years is this critical coming-of-age act of tribe-finding.