On September 29, Groton School gathered in the Campbell Performing Arts Center for the first Circle Talk of the year. The speaker? Curtis Sittenfeld ’93, the bestselling author of Prep, a novel about a young girl, Lee Fiora, who attends “Ault,” a fictionalized New England boarding school based in part on Sittenfeld’s experience as a Groton student.
During the Q&A, I asked Sittenfeld a question: “Little Washington, the only black girl, is expelled for stealing, and Sin-Jun, the only Asian character, barely speaks English and is driven to a suicide attempt over her grades. How do you respond to the criticism that your characters are stereotypical?”
Sittenfeld’s answer was long-winded and unclear. She seemed unable to confirm or deny if her characters were stereotypical, and suggested that “most people have a racist bone in their body.”
Prep is set in the late ’80s and was published in 2005, before representation in the media was seriously acknowledged. Sittenfeld herself graduated from Groton in 1993, at a time when Groton was not socioeconomically or racially diverse. It’s easy to say that Prep is simply a relic of its time, like Huckleberry Finn. I want to challenge the notion that Prep’s racism and stereotyping is simply “Groton back then.” Sittenfeld’s work, her answer to my question, and approach towards writing allows racist stereotypes to thrive.
In the novel itself, Sittenfeld makes dismissive and inaccurate remarks about race. The protagonist, Lee Fiora, says: “Little [Washington]’s blackness made her exist outside of Ault’s social strata. Not automatically, though, not in a negative way. More like, it gave her the choice of opting out without seeming like a loser.”
This quote erases the struggle of Black students and students of color in preparatory education. Prep schools were created as institutions for the children of the wealthy; their founding is rooted in a history of exclusion, both racial and socioeconomic. Groton’s first Black student was admitted in 1952, over half a century after the school’s founding. To describe Little Washington’s lack of friends as a “perk” of her race rather than the lingering effect of centuries of discrimination is unfair and untrue.
Although Sittenfeld seems to be aware of Prep’s inaccuracies, she nonetheless holds onto the very writing principle that perpetuates stereotyping and misrepresentation in the media. Sittenfeld argues that fictional writing does not succeed under an “agenda.” I believe the opposite is true. Readers are aware of a text’s message, regardless of whether the message was intentional. Was Sittenfeld intentionally trying to be racist while writing Prep? Definitely not. But regardless of her intent, readers such as myself still picked up her racial stereotypes. Sittenfeld claims that she’s very intentional and systematic with her plot, and that she kept track with all of Prep’s characters via spreadsheets––surely she can apply such meticulous care to developing her characters and the purpose they play in a narrative.
I appreciated Sittenfeld’s return to Groton, and hearing her discuss the writing process as well her time on the Circle. I asked my question because I wanted to talk about enduring problems of racial representation in the media and pop culture. Sure, maybe Lee is an unreliable narrator. Yes, Prep was published 20 years ago. But 20 years after its publication, Sittenfeld should have a more coherent response to criticism. She should be able to clearly say that “Prep is a reflection of its time. In the future, I’ll be more intentional about representing the world around me.”
