To Deceive, or not to Deceive
David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green was a bit of a change of pace from Fun Home. Featuring the youngest protagonist that we’ve seen, Jason is finally a character who has less life experience than all of us. Unfortunately for him, that means that he’s living through arguably one of the most challenging parts of his life, one where he is repressed and attacked at almost every corner. I’d like to specifically focus on one common theme that is presented throughout the novel, the theme of deception. Throughout the story (even confession?), Jason suggests that he feels repressed with secrets and false truths at school and even at home, with a social hierarchy that dominates him at school, and the stress of knowing that something is amiss with his parents.
Right off the bat, Jason is shown breaking the number 1 rule in his house, to not enter his father's office, but immediately, a mindset of keeping secrets is established. It starts with: “Do not set foot in my office. That’s Dad’s rule. But the phone’d rung twenty-five times. Normal people give up after ten or eleven, unless it’s a matter of life or death. Don’t they?” (Mitchell 1). Being the first lines in the book, this passage shows that authority is real in the novel. Rules are established, but are they also supposed to be broken if the situation seems urgent enough? Jason later ends up entering the office, and one of his first secrets is established, and fear emerges. A fear of letting down the character with authority or being punished. The longer the secret goes on, the more the fear and its side effects develop.
Lies begin to clearly emerge and influence Jason with the introduction of a mentor figure, Mrs. Crommelynck, even if she teaches him valuable lessons. The entire chapter with Mrs. Crommelynck was one of the most influential, if subtle, chapters in the novel. Jason specifically discusses his alter ego Eliot Bolivar with Mrs. Crommelynck after she cleverly manages to get the truth out of him. She talks about many subjects: the paradox of being unable to clearly define beauty because beauty simply is, and how, specifically with poetry, beauty is discovered in truth. He begins to have a sort of revelation when disaster strikes, and Madame Crommelynck has been arrested. “The Crommelyncks will be in German police cells right now. A stammering thirteen-year-old kid in deathliest England’ll be the last thing on Mrs Crommelynck’s mind. The solarium’s gone. My poems are crap. How could they not be? I’m thirteen. What do I know about Beauty and Truth? Better bury Eliot Bolivar than let him carry on churning out shite. Me? Learn French? What was I thinking?” (Mitchell 166). Madame Crommelynck speaks the truth, but when she disappears off the face of Earth, all the trust Jason had in her disappeared. Just as Jason was developing and learning about his passion, the person encouraging him most about it was a fraud? The world almost begins to crumble in front of Jason's eyes, and lies begin to ensue. Reassuring false ideas that he has to confine to others' ways instead of loving what’s special about himself.
Finally, a brief example at the end of the novel shows that the battle is just beginning, and that Jason is feeling torn between his father and mother. After a scandal of sorts was exposed to the public Jasons parents finally split, and he was forced to pack up his belongings. An already complex relationship with his parents develops even more when Jason feels as if he has to take sides: “The horriblest part was, being friendly to Dad makes me feel disloyal to Mum. However much they say ‘We both still love you’ you do have to choose” (Mitchell 283). Jason is essentially caught between his mother and father, and half-truths are very much present in the final chapter. He feels as if he has to pick sides, but he doesn’t want to carry the burden of having secrets anymore. A truth that he just begins to learn at the end of the novel. Everything seems to be collapsing, but Julia comes in to reassure Jason that this is just the start of his story. He won't have to choose between his parents, and as he grows up, he will have to learn how not to be restrained by family tensions.
In the end, Jason’s story is a sad but also hopeful one to read. Being a sort of confession of sorts, he tells of encountering many challenges at school and home, and at the start of the story feels quite repressed, but at the end, he begins to ultimately assert that he needs to show who he is. Beauty isn’t conforming to society or having secrets, but is being confident in who he is. People in life may not always be there, so knowing and showing where the good and beautiful things are is a key goal. Finally, while Jason may not even realize it half the time, lies can be controlling and can be seen as (false) truths. There will always be lies in the world, and they will bring consequences. But being firm in his foundations and knowing that his story is just developing is an encouragement.
Works Cited:
Mitchell, David. Black Swan Green. Random House, 2007.
Hi Mateo! I like the idea of a Black Swan Green as a confession. He shares truths that he is scared to tell anyone about. He even starts the story confessing to breaking a rule. Even though it may not be a real story (Black Swan Green is a fictional town), many of the elements of the story are grounded in real, universal experiences that many can relate to. Also why does it say the blog is by Mateo and Mateo Hernandez
ReplyDeleteI very much like and affirm the description of this entire narrative as a "confession of sorts," and in this case "confession" means something like the speaking of discomfiting and even embarrassing truths regardless of their consequences, socially or in terms of authority figures and rules. Importantly, near the end of the novel Jason decides to "stuff all rules" when he takes his unconventional route of getting justice/revenge for Neal Brose and his "popularity lessons." He is also learning how to stuff the "rule" that his writing hide his identity, hide his truth, allude in metaphorical terms to what is going on in his life without engaging the specificity. While Eva is technically revealed to be a "fraud" (at least in the financial realm, according to Interpol), in this instance her advice seems sound. If we assume that she is essentially the source of the confessional prose narrative we are reading (we see Jason start writing in fact-based, direct prose in the middle of "Disco," specifically in the confessional mode, as he is revealing his secret connection to Ross Wilcox and the wallet and lost leg), then her advice that he remove the "pretty words" from his writing and get down to writing *truth* becomes his dominant aesthetic criterion for the book we hold in our hands. He names names, so to speak--unlike in his poem based on the events in "Spooks," when he self-censors the name of the gang so no one associates the writing with him. Eva helps him see that the writing is only meaningful IF it is associated with him. Stop focusing on the beauty of Venus swinging bright from the ear of the moon, and focus instead on the gritty, ambiguous, challenging, and disillusioning experience itself. That's what the chapter is really "about."
ReplyDeleteHey Mateo, this was a lovely blog! It felt very grounded in Jason's feelings. With Madame Crommelynck, right as he felt like he was discovering the real identity of truth (the truth behind truth, if you will), he finds that he's actually been lied to this whole time--- Madame Crommelynck is literally a criminal and is now in jail. Now all his insecurities are reaffirmed! When it comes to having imposter syndrome, every misfortune serves as evidence of your inherent failure-ness, and this is exactly how Jason interprets his situation. However, there had to have been some truth-- why did Eva ask Jason to come to the vicary if not because she genuinely wanted to discus his poetry? How do her lies detract from that sense of "worthiness". In my opinion, this grain of truthfulness within Jason's whole ordeal is incredibly beautiful; Eva was right.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of Black Swan Green as Jason's way to vent the feelings he cannot express in his life. It kind of reminded me of Catcher in the Rye, the way it is part retelling and part stream of consciousness. Holden also shares his feelings with the reader as if he can trust them more than anybody else in his life.
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