Proving Masculinity in Sag Harbor

     When we read Whitehead's Sag Harbor, we can see that throughout the story, a lot of the characters, particularly in Benji's friend group, have a sort of desire to carry themselves across in the most masculine way possible, whether this be in roast battles or games they play throughout Sag Harbor, Benji and his crew are always trying to seem tough and cool in the eyes of each other. This desire for seeming as cool and fitting as possible is something I've seen throughout all coming of age books we've seen this year, from Holden's facade of toughness to Esther's initial attempts to fit in with her schoolmates, to the Bechdels' hidden aspects of their lives and Jason Taylor's self edition. Wanting to fit in is a big part of one's coming of age story, and is probably something that everyone's wanted to do at least once in their lives. We see this in Benji now, multiple times throughout Sag Harbor. I've seen this happen a lot, but I'll only talk about two of the times I've spotted it.

    I first saw this in almost all of the numerous scenes where Benji spends time with his friends. Throughout the book, the crew are seen engaging in a sort of "roast battles". In these, a member of the group insults another in the most creative way possible, often ending with something along the lines of " in' motherfucker". An example of this is seen on page 42. "“You fuckin' Cha-Ka from Land of the Lost–lookin' motherfucker," (Whitehead 42). When challenged in this way, the targeted member of the group must also respond in the most creative way possible, probably "winning" the battle if their get-back is even more creative. By doing this, members of Benji's friend group show attempts of proving themselves to be as masculine as possible. They do this by, in a way, challenging the target of the insult, and almost "asserting dominance."

    When Benji and his friends are preparing to play with the B.B Guns, I saw that they attempt to seem as tough and cool as possible two major times throughout the entire scene. The first one I saw through the earlier parts, in which all of them are passing the B.B guns around and posing with them. We see that a lot of them make attempts to seem tough and cool, often replicating covers and pictures from popular culture. I also saw this happen shortly after Benji takes the gun. When he declines the offer to hold the gun, his friends do not respond positively, instead answering with "What are you, a pussy?" (Whitehead 117). We see that Benji's friends immediately respond in a way that would almost set them at a "higher status". You could suggest they're almost saying "Look at us, we're all holding the B.B gun and you aren't because you're scared."