One theme throughout Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead that I frequently notice is how the narrator constantly reminds readers of the Cooper family’s perfection. Having a family of two hard-working parents, three children in respectable schools, and vacations in a family home, is apparently the vision of a perfect family. I found it interesting though, how despite the constant reiteration of this point, their family seems far from any societal standards of a perfect family. For one, both parents work extremely hard and are often away from home, leaving their fairly young children alone without proper meals or rules. Another interesting point was seeing the way Benji’s parents interact, specifically in the chapter “To Prevent Flare-ups” where his father gets mad at his mother for buying cheap paper plates that easily get soggy and struggle to hold food.
This scene in particular gave me an odd feeling about his family, especially the way Benji distracted himself from their fight by reading a book, implying that they fight a lot. Furthermore, the way Benji’s father talked about women, saying he should choose a partner based on the way their mother looks, gave me an icky feeling. This whole chapter oddly reminded me of Bruce in “Fun Home”, and his obsession with attaining the image of ‘perfect family’ in exchange for actual happiness. It seems slightly like Benji’s father is also set on appearing perfect, from not having a wife people would call fat, to calling Reggie “shithead” for a year because of bad grades, he almost seems to view his family as people he can push around to make into his perfect vision.
While I’m possibly being too harsh, and from what I’ve seen Bruce is still much more controlling than Benji’s father, there is still an interesting connection between the two characters. I’m also very curious how his possible perfectionism affects his children, and if it in any way is a similar way to Bruce.
I also noticed this dynamic, which the narrator himself makes clear when he says that his family was the perfect TV family. While they in some ways do reflect the aspirations of families, that they could have it all (wealth, family life, some sort of happiness), what comes along with that is a lot of the tensions between the parents and the expectations they impose on the kids. I agree that Benji's dad's comments often made me uncomfortable and just the way he looks at people who he seems to have "authority" over. Nice post :)
ReplyDeleteBenji's family is definitely not as perfect as the appear to be on the outside. For one, their family is definitely not a traditionally moral family in the sense that the parents are around to spend quality time with the kids. What's more, when the parents do come home it's often just to throw parties, drink, and make the family look good to impress the public and uphold the family reputation. Underneath it all, Benji's family is definitely somewhat dysfunctional and it reinforces the idea that a perfect family (and happiness) does not necessarily come with wealth. The relationship between parents and kids in Benji's family are also proof that some sort of moral sacrifice has been made to give them the facade of a perfect family.
ReplyDeleteI really like you're connection between the fathers in the two books, and I think you make some very good points about how their emphasis on a perfect looking family. Furthermore, I find it interesting how the mothers tend to habe to suffer the consequences of this. For example, the mother in Fun Home was cheated on because the dad was so obsessed with mantaining the image of a perfect family despite his sexuality, and the mother in Sag harbor was yelled at because the father wanted to mantain the image of being the perfect family and having the perfect plates.
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