Ice Cream in Sag Harbor

 In Sag Harbor, one thing Benji and I share in common is our love for ice cream. Benji and his friends ate a concerningly large amount of ice cream at Jonni Waffle in the book. They always tried different flavors every time, with a dedication that most would only have to do something really important, which to teenage boys on summer break is probably loading up on as much ice cream as humanly possible. While this idea of stuffing yourself with ice cream is a cool detail to add in the plot, I kind of found a deeper meaning to it by the end of the book. It symbolizes having to fill time doing something, even though you really don’t know what you want to be doing with yourself in this newfound free time. This is something that I can especially relate to, being on summer break without something to study for or work towards.


The aimlessness of just eating ice cream seems to be the point. Benji is two generations post the people who made Sag Harbor what it is in the novel, from Maude Terry buying land which others viewed as worthless, giving it to her friends and creating something from the ground up. The generation before him carried the torch of Sag Harbor’s history, which is seen when his father switched from light hearted to Black-nationaist radio stations on the way to Sag Harbor. Now in the present, with Benji, he knows all the facts of what happened to a tee, but it doesn’t feel like there is a way in which he is carrying this history forward. Everyday is monotonous, from waking up, working, driving, spending time at the beach, and eating leftovers in the freezer. The plot doesn’t seem to point this out as a very bad thing, but wants us as readers to decide how we feel about this nothingness of Benji’s life.


What complicates Benji’s situation, isn’t the laziness as a teenager, but that the blatant racism that his parents once faced and fought isn’t as clear cut in Benji’s generation. Most of his school is white, but they listen to albums like the Smiths and albums like Run-DMC equally. Even at work, when he thought he was experiencing racism, he isn’t even sure that the guy who did it was even white. The book labels this feeling as “deep eye of the beholder terrain”, which I feel shows that racism is still prevalent, just much harder to identify, and for Benji, makes it harder to develop his personality. 


Benji isn’t as directly involved in the fight like his previous generations, but at the same time isn’t modern enough to be able to believe that his race won’t play a positive role in his success in this world. His lack of a purpose in life causes him to just do what is easiest to him, which is to eat another cone, and move on.


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