The Out Questions
In Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor, one of the questions that keeps getting asked is “are they out yet?” In fact, this first sentence of the book is “First you had to settle the question of out” (Whitehead 3). When I first read this it felt a little reminiscent of a coming out story of LGBTQ+ people. In a way Sag Harbor is a story of identifying with a community and really finding yourself there. This connects with how the first question they ask is always about outness. I also think the way the community functions with it being set in summer time plays into this question. There’s this excitement about who is still willing to come out to Sag Harbor and spend their summer there, and it shows who’s really proud of this part of their identity, which resonates similarly with coming out.
A big aspect of this I think stems from pride of being in the Sag Harbor community. They talk about there being different generations such as when Benji comments how “Melanie’s family was first generation” (276). The people who’re part of these families that have been going to Sag are seen as these elders and are respected for setting up such a community. Newer families such as Melanie’s are lower in rank, but the other people in the community are still happy that another family has found the joy of being in Sag. I think another part of this comes from how they view that the house you reside in is sacred. Benji says that “getting rid of your Sag house, that was unforgivable” (276). Benji might be a bit more sentimental, but I think that the idea of having this tradition and coming out to Sag Harbor each summer to the same house with the same people brings a lot of pride and joy for its residents.
Another part that connects to this is the way they view the length of duration someone stays in Sag Harbor. In the beginning of the book, one of the “out” questions is “how long are you out for?” (4). They view this duration part as an important aspect of being considered a part of the Sag community. Just showing up for a weekend to have fun doesn’t include you in this group. Benji’s sister Elena showed up just for a weekend, and Benji refers to her as one the people who age out of going to Sag Harbor. They’ve chosen to stop doing this, and to Benji that’s a sad idea of getting too old to keep on going to Sag. This place brings together all of the aspects of summer that one could ask for and makes it into the childhoods of all the residents there, so there’s a sense of belonging when you ask, are you out?
Hey Jonathan. I noticed in the book that the kids and the parents seem to go through cycles. We can see this when the grandparents lament on what they used to do when they were young, and we see Benji doing the same thing with the race. I like how you connect Sag Harbor to ones identity in the book. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how you compare the Sag Harbor community to the LGBTQ+ community, especially in the ways they have a sense of place and pride within the community. The idea of coming out to Sag Harbor year after year and making it part of your identity definitely connects to these ideas.
ReplyDeleteI love the comparison and I completely agree! People really feel connected to this community in a way that they feel connected to their identity. This point might not seem important to the book at large, but I feel like it really shapes the dynamics in Benji's life as well. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting comparison. It also got me thinking about how it could apply to other details about Sag Harbor. For example, in the book, the "townies" who live in Sag full time are kind of isolated from the vacation house community. You mentioning the kind of social ranks among the different kinds of residents also reminded me of this. The nature of how people spend their time in Sag Harbor makes it a very interesting community. This also makes me wonder what its like socially during the rest of the year after summer ends. This was an interesting post!
ReplyDeleteI've never considered these connections between being "out" in Sag Harbor and closeting dynamics in LGBTQ culture. I've definitely thought of all the closeting dynamics in _Black Swan Green_ before, where Jason is so careful to edit anything that might be perceived as "gay," but you're right that Sag Harbor serves as something of an "out" context for Benji and his friends to specifically immerse themselves in a Black community. When we consider the early scenes, where Benji is debuting his black Chucks and heat-absorbing Bauhaus t-shirt as beach wear, and Reggie is debuting his polished white Filas, we can see the kids as experimenting with their identities in what should be something of a "safe space." Now how this all fits with the casual rampant homophobia (they say "fag" as often as "dag," according to Ben) is an open question. But in terms of racial identity, this setting does enable the kids to be "out" in a different way than they can at their elite prep schools.
ReplyDelete