Elena vs Julia: The Archetype of an Older Sister
Apparently, Black Swan Green and Sag Harbor are essentially sister stories, meaning they have a very similar outline in the coming of age world. Past the characters themselves, one of the clearest comparisons I found was the similarities between Elena and Julia from Black Swan Green, as older sisters -- which I kind of loved as an older sister. While I think Elena is much less influential on Benji’s development and is among the family that has become distant, she still cares about him enough to want him to be out of the family dynamic–which is important to the main character’s development.
They’re a few years older than the narrator and demonstrate that they’ve already been down a path the main character will go down in a couple years, acting as role models for the later phase of growing up that older characters like Esther and Holden don’t have. They both protect the younger brother, Julia by defending him from Hugo and Elena telling him to “Work hard and get into a good school-- that way you can get out and that’s it” (285). They don’t care as much about their siblings when they’re younger– as Benji says, “She was our babysitter, buddy, and bully, according to her needs” (282) which to me definitely has that older sibling vibe. As they get older, the older sisters begin to see their siblings as more equal and learn to take care of them more. With Elena, she wants to be closer, saying “Of course I want to see you and Reggie" (285), but she knows that seeing them might set her too close to the family and to Sag Harbor. To me, it seemed like the Elena + Benji dynamic is basically what the Julia + Jason dynamic might’ve looked like later on, if Julia hadn’t been able to connect more with Jason throughout the book. It’s like Elena left before things started to get worse with their family, and the family isn’t exactly there for Benji anyway.
It’s also clear that both Elena and Julia are too big for this small town dynamic, and both seem to fit the persona of needing to be in a bigger place. I think it’s interesting how having an older sibling can kind of give a character more time to think about the future, and how it shows them they can have a way out of complicated family scenarios–a lot of Esther’s anxiety, for example, surrounds her uncertainty about the future. If the older sister is close to the younger child, their experience acts as a bridge to the outer world and to new beginnings. To Benji, though, Elena’s experience acts as more of a warning for his life with his family to go somewhere else. He doesn’t even remember if everything that happened with her is true or not, which shows how distant she is. The older sister characters are eerily similar in my mind, but hold different plot pointers to the main character.
Hello! Awesome blog! I had never considered how similar these older sister characters were before, but now I totally see it. I think it's really important how pivotal to the coming of age character's story each sister is. They help them to see valuable information they had refused to acknowledge before, especially relating to each of their parents relationships.
ReplyDeleteHi. I never considered the similarities of the sisters to each other. Perhaps it was how how Elena is described from Benji's memory as this tyrannical 'because I said so.' figure, and then she was gone. And we saw the relationship with Julia change. To be honest, I didn't even think that Benji really understood what Elena was talking about in the book, but looking back on it, it could have just been because they were in public.
ReplyDeleteHello Penny! I agree that Julia and Elena have a lot in common, from giving advice to their little brothers to leaving their hometown when they become adults. I think the theme of older siblings coming to accept their younger siblings once those younger siblings have matured more is interesting. Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteHi Penny! This is such an interesting topic! You bring up some really good points and examples from the text! Having siblings is a strange experience but I think you captured the nuances well. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Penny! A lot of my essay was based on the relationship between Julia and Jason, so I definitely saw the parallels between Julia and Elena after we finished reading Sag Harbor. I agree that Elena and Benji are like a parallel-universe Julia and Jason, where Elena moved away instead of experiencing their parent's marriage problems alongside her brother like Julia did with Jason. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Penny!! Good job drawing the parallel between Elena and Julia! I thought it was very interesting how these sisters were almost the first to notice something wrong with their family dynamic and give hints to their younger siblings. Great blog :DD
ReplyDeleteHi Penny!!! I really enjoyed your post. I didn't really think that much into the comparison between Julia and Elena, but I agree with all the points that you made. I feel like Julia and Elena have become sort of mother figures to the boys, and I completely agree with you that they sort of try to help and protect them. Good Job!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Penny! I made a similiar blog contrasting Jason and Benji and its defnitely interesting to see how those parallels extend into their familial relationships as well, I hadn't thought to look into that so deeply. I agree that they both are very similar, and in a way help try steer their respective brothers out of these small town traps. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteI wish we'd had more opportunities to appreciate Elena in our class discussions. Just as I wish there were even more Julia in _Black Swan Green_, because everything she says in that book is so perfect, witty, insightful, and real, I wish we got to see more of Elena in _Sag Harbor_. But in a sense, as the one who has already gotten "out" and is not coming back, her absence IS her presence in the book. There's a sense of things coming to an end throughout the novel--not just summer, but the whole era of summer in Sag. We don't know for sure that this is Benji's final summer coming "out," but there is a strong sense of an ending in "The Black National Anthem," and it sure feels like Whitehead is pondering the "replacements" that came after him. Also, we get no indication that *adult* Benji has been to Sag in years. He is NOT going to be on the sidelines of those races, cheering on his replacement. He's going to be like Elena, long gone, not looking back, having found his "tribe" and leaving this era behind. And this is precisely what she tells Benji he needs to do when he runs into her outside that restaurant.
ReplyDelete