Jason Taylor: Better Alone

Black Swan Green, Jason Taylor’s home town, is established in the novel not only as a location without any actual swans, but also an enclosure of informal societal rules that separate the “normal” kids from the outcasts. Throughout the first half of the book, until the “Spooks” chapter, Jason attempts to fit into this mold set by his peers both by engaging in activities he doesn’t want to and hiding true parts of his identity. This “mold” of social norms and hierarchies is established in the first chapter of the novel as Jason explains the depth behind the name you are called: “Kids who’re really popular get called by their first names…it’s all ranks, being a boy, like the army” (Mitchell 5). Though Jason self-identifies himself fairly low on this social hierarchy of names, it seems pivotal to him that he doesn’t drop even lower on this “ranking.” His desire to maintain what little status he has is clearly displayed by his choice to call his friend Dean Moran “Moron” in front of other kids so that he doesn’t “damage [his] own standing” and the decision to play a violent British version of sharks and minnows “British Bulldogs” that he “hates” (Mitchell 5, 7). In addition to Jason’s efforts of adherence to the strict social constraints set by his peer society he also hides a core part of his identity that he fears won’t be accepted: his poems. 

Madame Crommelynck, Jason’s poetic mentor, correctly articulated that for Jason “poetry is a shameful secret” to which he responded by beautifully explaining that in his warped 13-year-old boy world “writing poetry’s sort of gay” (Mitchell 153). However, Jason’s poems were meaningful enough to him that he continued writing under the pseudonym Eliot Bolivar. In fact, through poetry Jason found confidence to express the words that “Hangman” won’t allow him to say. He admires how his sister Julia can wield so much power simply with her expansive vocabulary and articulate argumentative words; Jason finds this treasure only in writing, in poems. 

Thus, when considering what “happened” to Jason, how he changed or “came of age” throughout this novel, I believe that he simply stepped into himself and away from the false identity he held onto for a silver of respect. After the chapter “Spooks,” where it is heavily implied that Jason disobeyed this gang’s direct orders not to check on a wounded Dean, Jason loses all remaining social status and becomes a “leper.” The shift is noticeable though, not just in how Jason is treated by his peers, but in himself. He starts calling his friend “Dean,” he doesn’t participate in things he doesn’t want to (like British Bulldogs), and most importantly, he doesn’t even mind a breach in anonymity of his poems when questioned by his sister Julia. I believe that Jason found a better version of himself by dropping as low as possible socially, so that he could disregard social expectations and become the person he truly was: a friend, a human that didn’t enjoy being pummeled, and a poet. Though Jason might not have enjoyed being the school “leper,” I believe his growth into his true self was a far greater reward than an artificial popular life could’ve ever given him.