Benji’s Coming of Age at Jonni Waffle

 In Sag Harbor, one of Benji’s most formative moments during the summer is working at Jonni Waffle. Beyond simply making bank, this memory represents a myriad of “coming of age” moments for Benji that symbolize his transition to adulthood. 

Simply having a job demonstrates how Benji is coming of age. When people think of growing up, one of the first major “signs” is working for money. With this job, Benji has a lot more newfound freedom. For one, he talks about having all the ice cream he wants and eating it for lunch. While it may seem immature that he is not properly loading his body with nutrients, the ability to choose what he eats is a sign of his growing adulthood. More specifically, it shows that he is currently in the transition phase of becoming an adult - while he has the maturity of a child when it comes to what he chooses to eat, he has the freedom of the adult. 

There are also a variety of “emotional” experiences that signal a change in his mentality from childhood innocence to adult maturity. One of the more interesting ones is when he is working with a female coworker, and has these “experiences” where he talks about elbowing her in a certain place. He remarks, “One scoop dread, one scoop excitement - such was my portion when I worked with Meg” (Whitehead 118). I believe that this is one of the first documented times where he feels one of these more “adult” emotions and makes a notable remark about it. 

During this summer in Sag Harbor, Benji is also without his brother, Reggie, for a large part of the time. This is noteworthy because throughout their entire childhood, Benji and Reggie were known as “the twins”, and did everything together. However, they’ve learned to get their own identities, and they hang with different crowds nowadays. Benji even remarks that their separation is even physically visible, having developed different physiques from their previously similar body types. This shift from being part of a duo to developing their own identities shows how Benji has become more of an adult this summer. Benji taking a job at Jonni Waffle is significant in this aspect because he chose to do a different job from Reggie, symbolizing their growing divide.