The spooks or the nerd
The spooks or the nerd
Throughout the book of black swan green, we follow a 13 year old boy named Jason. We see a whole year of his life and the decisions that he makes throughout the novel. Also well throughout the novel we also get to see the two sides of Jason that he has to pick. Either he is with the cool kids and is a spooks, or he is going to be "gay" and be a writer. We see Jason in the novel switch between which of the two he wants to be. There are also two very important people that influence these two choices Jason is making. The first person is Hugo, Jasons 2 year older cousin. The second person is Madame Crommelynck (that name takes forever to write...). These two people were very important for Jason growth as a character and for which side Jason was going to chose.
The first person I want to talk about is Hugo. During the beginning of the book Jason heavily admires Hugo. I will give a quote from the book when Jason describes Hugo when us the reader first meets him. "Last came Hugo. Hugo fits his body like a glove. He's two years older than me. "Hugo" would be a cursed name for most kids but on Hugo it's a halo." From the description, we can obviously see that Jason admires and looks up to Hugo in the beginning of the novel. Even though Jason admires Hugo, I think that Hugo was playing Jason ego for most of the chapter. Even though after the relatives chapter we don't see Hugo again, his "persona" comes up again in the Spooks chapter. When the group of Spooks kids are trying to preforme a ding dong ditch prank. Jason brings up an method that Hugo did when he ding dong ditches someone. Jason bringing up Hugo's idea shows that Hugo was more of the spooks or "cool kids" mentor for Jason.
The second person that I want to talk about is Madame Crommelynck. She is a very interesting character in this story. For starters Crommelynck leaves right at the end of the chapter, never to be seen again. It is like Crommelynck was only there for plot relevance and them when she did was she was supposed to do, she just left. Another very interesting thing about this character is that she is the only character in the book to get Jason to tell her about his life and what is going on at school. Before the chapter that Crommelynck was introduced in, only us the readers knew about Jason struggles and his life at school. One of the main reasons why Crommelynck knows about Jason's life is because of the poems that Jason creates, she reads them. This also proves that Crommelynck is the peom side of Jason. While talking with Crommelynck, she makes Jason question why is he trying to "be cool." It kinda gets Jason to open up and think truly if he wants to be a quote on quote "cool kid."
the conclude, Black Swan Green has Jason making a bunch of choices as he goes through his 13th year truing fourteen. While there were a lot of other people that guided Jason to take a path for example Julia. I just wanted to dive a bit into the make splitting personalities that Jason was trying to deal with during the book. I found both of these characters very interesting.
Hi Amari! It is really interesting to look at how other characters play as role models that influence Jason in different ways. While Hugo brings up a cool, confident, morally ambiguous side, Madame Crommelynck brings an authentic, unapologetic approach. What's interesting is that they both have their benefits but ultimately fail as mentors. By the end of "Relatives" Jason is disillusioned with Hugo's antics, and Madame Crommelynck is arrested for tax scandals. I wonder what would happened if Madame Crommelynck stayed, maybe it would help him keep developing his authentic self, or maybe it would make his life even more hellish in "Maggot".
ReplyDeleteHi Amari,
ReplyDelete(I was not here on the day this was discussed so forgive me if I say something obvious or wrong)
I like your connection of Hugo to the Spooks; both put up a front of being cool, but are ultimately bullies (former) or irresponsible cowards (latter). Their inauthenticity contrasts with Mme Crommelynck, who repeatedly pressures Jason to be authentic. I like how you point out that she is the only person Jason can be truly honest with—I think this is in part because her existence breaks social norms so much that Jason doesn't have a "script" to interact with her with, and he respects her, so she uses this to her advantage to write her own script, in which she mentors him. As Lindon mentioned, Mme Crommelynck eventually gets extradited for fraud. This is pretty ironic, and together with the fact that it's pretty heavily implied that she isn't telling Jason the whole truth about that guy who worked with her father but committed suicide over a girl (who was probably her) we get a picture of Mme Crommelynck as somewhat of a hypocrite who values authenticity in others but is still willing to lie to Jason.
Still, she did influence him to want to go to France, even after she left.
Is Mme Crommelynck a plot device? Yeah. Does she also have a personality? Yeah. 10/10 weird old lady.
I would call him a good friend. He chose friendship over status, which not everyone would probably do. He was concerned for his friend's well-being, which is one of the characteristics of a good support/friend. I think Madam Crommelynick had more influence on him than Hugo. Ultimately, he did not choose the "hairy barbarians."
ReplyDeleteHey Amari! I really like how you broke down the two sides of Jason through Hugo and Madame Crommelynck because it's such a good way to look at the pull Jason feels the whole book. Your point about Hugo's influence showing up later in the Spooks chapter even when he's not there is definitely important because it shows how much Jason was still trying to be like him. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that throughout the novel, Jason is figuring out who he is and is sort of between personalities. Although Hugo and Madame Crommelynk were figures who played a role in deciding whether or not he would go down the path of being good or bad. Arguably, I think that we could say that everyone he encountered played a role in influencing young Jason. Ross Wilcox and how he was a bully but then became a cripple, Tom Yew and how he died in war, or even imaginary characters in his mind like Unborn Twin and Hangman. Whatever the case is, at the end of the novel, he seemed to be leaning towards a healthier path of life, even if his family was splitting up.
ReplyDeleteI would say that Jason "using" his connection to Hugo to give him some credibility with the Spooks would be a red flag of sorts: he doesn't quite get to *choose* to be one of the "cool kids," but this rite of passage seems to be as literal an invitation as he's ever going to get. So is Jason "Spook material"? Is he actually cut out to be one of these guys? Would it even be a good thing for him to become a Spook, if he's so ill-suited in terms of his disposition/nature to be part of this gang? The fact that "his" idea for the cherry-knocking is derived directly from Hugo suggests that Hugo might be Spook material in some way, but Jason is actually stressed out about the moral implications of cherry-knocking in a way that no one else is.
ReplyDeleteOne irony of this novel is that, in the end, Jason DOES become a poet/writer, and he's able to USE his experiences among the hairy barbarians as "material" for his writing.
Hi Omarion Dickens, I really liked you went deep in the guts of this comparison between the different personalities that Jason had based on what he was taught by Crommelynck and Hugo. I feel that another good comparison is how he was influenced by Julia to keep his interest in poetry a secret while Crommelynck pushed for him to express himself and that his interest in poetry wasn't a mistake but a gift. Good job my brotha!
ReplyDeleteHey Amari! Jason definitely finds himself split between two paths at many points in Black Swan Green. His options between being a spook or a good friend and between keeping his passion for writing or feeling like he fits in are instrumental in the plot of the novel and Jason's development as a person. As you acknowledge, Jason finds influences in each aspect of his personality. How these individuals affect his later actions is one of the most interesting aspects of Black Swan Green.
ReplyDelete