Black Swan Green: Let’s be Uncool!

Black Swan Green follows Jason’s personal growth over his thirteenth year. Jason starts his first year of teenage life in immense fear of other people discovering his “real” self. A big source of Jason’s anxiety comes from the kids in his neighborhood. Jason believes that kids in his village fall into a rigid, invisible hierarchy of popularity. Jason firmly believes that one’s rank in this power hierarchy will determine everything from friendships to respect to “survival” (Mitchell 5). Jason sees himself towards the lower side, where he lacks the coolness to be accepted by the tough kids, but also refuses to reside with the outsider kids. This in-between position renders him constantly self-conscious of his rank. For much of his year, Jason tries to construct a tough facade to impress and gain acceptance from the tough circle. 

Although Jason tries hard to render himself as tough as the other kids, he never gets their acceptance. In fact, Jason’s desire to conform to them forces him into a moral predicament. Jason often must choose to follow his values or follow what is “socially right.” An example of this tension is when he hesitates over whether to return and save Dean Moran after the greenhouse accident, where his instinct of kindness clashes with the fear of social retaliation from the spooks (140). In addition, Jason suffers the constant burden of hiding his stammer. Jason sees stammering as weakness and humiliation. He firmly believes his stammer will be used as mockery by the kids in his village. Thus, a trivial act of speaking becomes an exhausting performance. Every sentence that falls from his lips requires precise calculation and improvisation of alternatives for the words he can’t verbalize. 

As Jason’s year goes on, he receives outer mentorship that reshapes his mindset. One of these mentors is Madame Crommelynck, who reads Jason’s poetry and values his intelligence. Beyond guidance in writing, she challenges Jason to reject hierarchies and popularities. She sharply dismisses the kids that Jason’s trying to impress as “hairy barbarians (154).” She scolds Jason for using overly flowery and ornate language in his poems, emphasizing that his writing needs authenticity and courage (147). Indeed, the advice is about poetry, yet Jason may also found it applicable to real life. Towards the end of his thirteenth year, Jason begins to let go of his desire for social approval. This newly gained freedom and self-expression allow him to act more resiliently. When he acts without the fear of being condemned as a weak tattler and executes justice over Neal Brose, he gains the respect of his whole class. He even earned an “all right” from Gary Drake (273).

Jason’s experience reveals that respect from others is never earned through conformity. Blind conformity only leads to meaningless moral compromises of oneself. Only through resisting the social pressure (through being "uncool") Jason was able to reclaim control over his identity in his class. Jason’s coming-of-age lies in his ability to recognize the hollowness in the system of power in his village and his ability to choose not to be manipulated by it.

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Toodles!

Works Cited:

Mitchell, David. Black Swan Green. Random House, 2007.