Lara's English Class Blog

     My favorite moment of Sag Harbor is without a doubt when Benji describes being at the U.T.F.O concert when the bass is about to drop. I felt it was perfect scene because, even if it was just for a night, Benji could finally stop thinking about his father's abuse, his struggles fitting in, and the challenge of discovering himself. He could relax and enjoy.     At home, Benji clearly has a difficult time relaxing because of his father. In fact, he would rather take extra shifts at the ice cream shop to avoid seeing his dad on the weekends. In Manhattan, both Benji and Reggie struggle making friends at school. Benji is painfully aware that they don't fit in with their white classmates and even the surrounding community makes it clear to them. The lack of friends at school made Benji and Reggie dependent on each other for company which gave Benji a lot of anxiety surrounding discovering his true self.     Benji's struggles all culminate to the mo...

As we see throughout the book, Jason goes through the full spectrum of popularity.  In the beginning, he's not quite an outsider, but he's certainly not the most popular either. When we see him get tested by the Spooks, he finally gets the chance to join the elite group of popular boys which we know he has wanted for some time. Of course, as we see, Jason doesn't become a Spook and he instead falls even lower on the popularity spectrum when the boys find out about his stammer.  When I was reading this book, I found Jason's wide range of popularity to be quite interesting. We could easily see that Jason was very aware of where he stood in the popularity rankings at the beginning of the book. I think that a lot of people his age can relate to his descriptions and his wishes to be popular. Many teens change their personalities to try and fit in with the 'popular crowd', but Jason doesn't. Throughout the book, although he almost wavers sometimes, he stays true t...