Who does Benji Side with? NP or Nick?

    In Sag Harbor, Benji works a summer job at Jonni Waffle, as an ice cream scooper. He gets all the free ice cream he can eat while on the job, which seems like a pretty sweet deal, until he decides to let it all melt in a blackout. After everyone leaves the building and finishes locking up, Benji runs back inside under the alibi of getting his mix tape. While inside, he leaves the freezer door open. Because of Benji's actions, the ice cream was never able to be sold, instead melting on the floor throughout the night. Years later, Benji still imagines the merchandise melting, "The bottom cans collaps[ing]... and the ones up high tumbl[ing] out of the freezer, knocking the doors wide, the lids of the cans popping off (Whitehead 144). One would wonder what Benji's incentive is for ruining that much ice cream.

    Because of context clues and previous discussions between Benji and his friends earlier in the chapter titled "If I Could Pay You Less I Would," I believe Benji was taking revenge on the owner of Jonni Waffle, Martine, through this action. Earlier, Martine had patted Benji on the head while congratulating him for creating a stack of waffle cones. After this incident, NP and Nick continually argue over the intention of the action, whether it was seeped in racism, or a act of congratulations. Before Benji had been patted on the head, NP and Nick were bickering over if Martine was white or black; this incident merely added fuel to their argument. Keeping this in mind, it seems as if Benji is ruining Martine's sellable items for revenge because he sides with NP, thinking it was an act seeped in racist intent. Interestingly, Benji changes sides after he makes the ice cream melt, because of a picture that shows up in the office.

The next summer, a picture of Martine and his brother appears taped above Martine's desk. Benji can tell Martine's brother is black, which finishes the argument and makes the action one of camaraderie. The reader can observe Benji's change of heart when he thinks back on the melting ice cream. Rather than gloating about the revenge he got or the justice he received, Benji imagines the "slow ugly wave [of melted ice cream] reaching toward[s him across time and space] like a hand" (Whitehead 144). This imagery implies the regret Benji feels for his action and the anguish that continues to haunt him. 

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