Layers of Nostalgia in Sag Harbor

 Throughout Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead uses a nostalgic style of narration that makes it surprisingly easy for readers to connect, even if they haven’t lived anything like Benji’s life. Honestly, I found the book pretty boring most of the time, nothing major seemed to be happening. But I think that’s also what made it feel so real. It captured that weird part of growing up when everything feels like a big deal, even if, from the outside, it’s just a bunch of small, ordinary moments. And I think that’s exactly what Whitehead was going for. By separating the narrator, Ben, from his younger self, Benji, he shows how growth happens quietly, in the background. The adult Ben looks back with humor and distance, showing us that those little moments actually mattered more than we realized at the time.

The narration feels nostalgic throughout, but not in a fake or overly sweet way. Benji is constantly overthinking everything, how he looks, what his friends think, how to act in each situation, and you feel how isolated he often is. He’s not pretending this was the best summer ever. He’s just remembering it honestly, and that honesty is what makes it so relatable. Yes, there are nostalgic objects, like the changed Coke recipe or the songs playing on the radio, but the real connection comes from the emotions. That feeling of being stuck between childhood and adulthood, of not quite belonging, of realizing things around you are changing even if you don’t fully understand how. It’s that one summer or school year that shaped you, and you didn’t even notice until later. Ben looks back on this coming-of-age summer, the summer he got his braces off, kissed a girl, saw his family more clearly, and realizes how much those small, seemingly meaningless moments changed him.

Separating Ben from Benji is essential because it shows how much we grow and how different we become from who we once were. The last chapter ties this all together beautifully, especially with the symbolism of Labor Day, an ending, but also a beginning. I felt nostalgic reading it, even though I couldn’t exactly say for what. Maybe it’s because I’m graduating in two days, but I really felt the weight of those final pages. We’ve all had that moment, standing at the edge of something new, thinking about how we might change. And then there’s Ben narrating, saying, “Isn’t it funny? The way the mind works.” (Whitehead 329). He’s looking back and kind of laughing at the expectations his younger self had. It reminds you that one day, you’ll probably look back at who you are right now and think, That’s not me anymore. So the nostalgia in this book isn’t just about childhood, it’s about learning not to judge the past version of yourself.

Sag Harbor isn’t an action-packed novel, but it is deeply honest and quietly powerful. Maybe it hit me harder because I’m about to graduate, but that last chapter really made the book for me. You look at little kids and remember drawing on the sidewalk or getting your first dog, and then you realize older people are looking at you and remembering their first kiss, or their first party, or the summer before everything changed. Whitehead captures that layered nostalgia so well on Labor Day, when every generation gathers together, and you suddenly feel how connected we all are. So it’s not just Ben’s story, it’s everyone’s.




Comments

  1. RicoMay 20, 2025 at 7:37 PM

    I really like your idea of growing up seeming like such a big deal despite being a collection of ordinary moments. You really make the "relatable" aspect of the book clear, especially through highlighting Benji's overthinking and honesty when contemplating the summer as a whole. Great post!

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  2. MitchellMay 21, 2025 at 10:21 AM

    I agree that the final chapter has strong graduation vibes--in a sense, it does represent something like Benji "graduating" from his Sag Harbor era. We have his older sister, who has already gone off into that wider world and rarely comes back, and the sense that Benji and his friends are on the brink of "outgrowing" this phase of their lives. Whitehead never explicitly refers to the summer of '85 as Benji's "last summer at Sag"--and he is making plans for who gets the bed near the window "next year"--but there's definitely a sense of something coming to an end in that last chapter.

    When Benji is contemplating his and his crew's "replacements," it always makes me think of the rising seniors at Uni checking out the subbies on the first day of school--"who are these little shits, walking around like they own the place?"--while at the same time reminiscing about their own time as subbies.

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  3. Rishabh PrasanthMay 21, 2025 at 12:13 PM

    Larissa, throughout the novel, I found myself having difficulty relating to/feeling for the nostalgia that Ben is seemingly feeling while narrating Benji's story. Despite this, the undertones of melancholy in the last chapter hit me in a way that the rest of the book didn't. I agree with your claim the the novel is deeply honest and powerful. Even though Sag Harbor wasn't my favorite book the semester, it moved me the most. I'm not sure whether it was due to the actual prose of the chapter, or it was the fact that finishing this book was a very literal right of passage. Finishing the last book of the semester and in turn finishing the last book of high school. By closing the book, I was sort of closing this chapter of my life, similar to how Benji is afraid he is growing into someone like his sister, who rarely comes back. Nice blog!

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  4. CateMay 21, 2025 at 2:28 PM

    Larissa, I completely agree! I love your ideas on how to Benji and his friends growing up and getting older seemed like a such a big deal, despite how young they still are and how small some of those moments were.

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  5. Chloe N.H.May 27, 2025 at 12:52 PM

    Hi Larissa! I really like how you addressed the honest tone of the novel, and how it contributes to the nostalgic effect that it can have on the reader. Even if someone's summers aren't that similar to Benji's, the core of the summer experience for teenagers is still there and it makes for a compelling novel. Great post!

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