Benji's Place in Sag Harbor

 While Benji is the protagonist and narrator of Sag Harbor, I don’t think the book was really about him. What the author is telling is not the story of Benji, but the story of the town of Sag Harbor. Benji’s coming of age story is an illustration of the unique culture of this place and time. His story is just a little slice of the experience of growing up going to Sag Harbor, an experience shared by Benji’s friends, relatives, and community members across generations. What I took away from the book was much less about Benji’s personal journey, and much more about the very unique community and time period that it took place in.

In the book, Benji and his friends are framed as one iteration in a series of crews that came down to Sag Harbor in years past and years to come. Benji discusses the crews that came before him. His grandparents were the first residents to build houses in Sag Harbor. His parents once roamed the beaches just like he and his friends did, and eventually went on to continue the tradition by bringing their own families down. The book begins just as Benji’s crew inherits the experience of being the teenagers of Sag Harbor.

But, Benji is not the typical Sag Harbor resident, and parts of his background sometimes make him feel like an outsider. Prior to the Summer the novel takes place in, Benji attended a majority white private school in Manhattan. This put some distance between Benji and his former peers, as well as the larger Black community. This is illustrated by his contrast with Reggie. Benji and Reggie were once considered an inseparable unit, but since they went to different schools, they embraced very different aesthetics and subcultures. Reggie remained connected to his roots in the Black community, while Benji picked up traits from his white peer group. Benji is also subject to an abusive family situation, which he feels the need to hide from the other residents. In the chapter “To Prevent Flare-Ups,” Benji feels the need to close the windows so the other residents can’t hear his father berating and abusing his mother. This gives Benji a unique perspective on Sag Harbor where he is both a part of the community, and an outsider. Through Benji’s eyes, we get both the feeling of being immersed in the community, and the feeling of looking in on it from the outside.

I think that the point of the novel is to present this unique community to the world. Sag Harbor is special in that it is a community in which African Americans have access to things they are often denied by white supremacist society. It allowed them to own property in a way that was very difficult for African Americans during this era. It was a place where Black families were able to have their own houses near the beach, a luxury typically only accessible to white people. It also gave them the freedom to exist around an all-black peer group, where they were less subject to judgement and persecution from white peers. This created an interesting coming of age experience among the boys growing up there, where they enjoyed the ability to roam free in a community of their own, but still struggled against the challenges of a society that marginalized them.


Goodbye for now, Uni High. It has been a truly life-changing five years and I'm never going to forget this place or its people. I'm going to miss every single one of you. 


-Will Miller

Comments

  1. Robert TuMay 19, 2026 at 6:21 AM

    Hello Will,
    I like your view of the book being much less about Benji’s personal journey and much more about the very unique community and time period that it took place in. The Sag Harbor community was probably a lot different than the majority white private school in Manhattan and Benji and Reggie both have the freedom of of the feeling of being immersed in the community, and the feeling of looking in on it from the outside. I hope people feel like Uni is like that.

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  2. SophieMay 19, 2026 at 10:16 AM

    Hi! I agree that this book sort of felt stuck in its own moment in time. However, I do think this story is very much about Benji, at least his thoughts, as the narrator. On the other hand, Benji does a lot of observing the community, a lot of listening, so I see how this story can be very much about Sag Harbor (its name sake) and less so Benji Harbor.

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  3. ElliotthegreatMay 20, 2026 at 4:08 PM

    I really liked your interpretation that Sag Harbor is less about Benji alone and more about the community itself. Your point about Benji being “one iteration in a series of crews” was especially interesting because it shows how the novel connects generations together rather than focusing only on one individual coming-of-age story. I also thought your discussion of Benji feeling both inside and outside the community added a lot of depth, especially with the contrast between him and Reggie. The way you connected Sag Harbor to larger ideas about Black ownership, freedom, and belonging in a segregated society made the post feel much bigger than just a story about one summer. The ending was also really touching and fit the theme of looking back on a meaningful community and period of life. Although I don't graduate till next year, I am quite curious as to whether i feel the same way as Benji once my time is up. Good job and I wish you good luck in college!

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  4. MitchellMay 21, 2026 at 10:37 AM

    I really like this take on the title of the novel, and how it isn't primarily "about" Benji or his growth and development but instead a way of writing about, appreciating, and bringing attention to this little-known pocket of African American history. I wish we'd been able to discuss this aspect of the novel further in class, and I sort of wrote about this topic on my own blog. I think it's interesting both as a historical story about the founding of a special community that has a profound impact on shaping Benji's experience AND as a way of thinking about where Benji's generation fits into the larger narrative of Black history: do we see a kind of "decadence" after the "founding" generation who *built these houses with their bare hands* and had "visions" of what the community could be in the future. What would old Maude Terry say if she could be there on the beach next to Benji and the crew, talking shit and insulting each other and arguing about who bit what beat from whom?

    Congratulations, and thank you for your contributions to this class all semester. Uni will miss you, too!

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  5. SamuelMay 25, 2026 at 9:09 AM

    Hey Will,
    I really like the perspective you took on Sag Harbor, I've never thought about Benji not really being the main character, and instead the book being focused on his community and environment while in Sag Harbor. I also liked the connection you made with Benji and the differences he has with a lot of Sag Harbor Residents. He's upperclass and attended a majority white school in Manhattan. I liked the sort of "outsider" look you connected Benji's background to.
    Great blog!

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