Adolescence In David Mitchell's Black Swan Green

Adolescence is a time of struggle for most of us. It is the time in our lives when we figure out who we are. In Black Swan Green, Jason Taylor is a thirteen year old boy who is figuring himself out in David Mitchell’s version of a 1980’s Great Britain. Throughout the book, Jason moves through his peer community’s social ranking but spends most of the novel at the bottom of the hierarchical system. At the beginning of the chapter “disco,” Jason breaks Neal Brose’s calculator and grasses on the school bully. After this incident, Jason gains self-confidence and learns not worry about what others think of him. In middle school, I always learned to make a joke out of whatever mockery was being directed toward me. Yet, after a full year of being

called Piggy I cracked and punched the ring leader in the face. Even though Jason and I have had similar experiences with bullies, we differ in what we learned from them. When Jason dismembered his bully’s personal property, he gained the confidence to do and say as he pleases, but after sending a guy who was a year older than me to the hospital, I vowed not to stand up to someone in that way ever again.
The beginning of “disco” marks the ascension of Jason’s confidence. After breaking Neal Brose’s calculator, Jason knows there will be consequences, but he doesn’t care. In fact, Jason begins the chapter telling himself to, “Blank out the consequences” (Mitchell 258). Blanking out the consequences gets Jason sent to the headmaster's office to talk about the incident. At this point Jason does not yet have the ability to directly stand up to his bullies, but he feels comfortable ratting them out to authority figures. Jason reveals to Mr. Nixon that, “Neal… ordered [Jason], Floyd Chaceley, Nicholas Briar, and Clive Pike to pay him a pound a week for popularity lessons” and had his accomplices extort the money out of them (260). To some degree, Jason must’ve known that this would give him the power he needed to break the social construct. “[Jason] had to show Brose [he wasn’t] afraid of him” (261). Through confiding in an adult, Jason gained the confidence that is shown throughout the rest of the chapter.
Immediately after talking to Mr. Nixon, we see Jason’s new found confidence. Locked in the school’s storeroom, Jason encounters two second year students who ask him if the rumors are true. Instead of remaining in the silence of his past, Jason harshly responds with, “‘What the fuck is that… to you?’”. Jason is well aware that he is no longer an untouchable in the caste system -- his infuriated response was sparked because the students had “addressed [Jason] like he was still in his Maggot Period” (262). Afterwards, Jason exemplifies truly how much this incident augmented his confidence at an assembly for the kids of 3KM. Jason stands up in front of the entire class and calls out another bully, Gary Drake, as an idiot. Hangman, who we find out at the end of the novel is likely a result of Jason’s lack of confidence, “handed [Jason] a free pass for the afternoon” (299; 263). This means he must be feeling fearless to be able to speak without his stammer. Besides gaining the ability to speak out, Jason’s morale has translated into his social life and appears later in the chapter at the school disco.
At the disco, Jason is not afraid to enjoy himself. Typically, Jason would not go to a social event where he would be vulnerable to the barbarity of his community, but the events of the day had changed him. Upon encountering Gary Drake in the bathroom, Jason thinks, “Once I’d’ve frozen, but not after a day like today” (273). As the chapter continues, Jason’s morale enables him to pursue a love interest. Jason catches a glimpse of Holly Deblin’s “Indian goddess dance” and knows he wants her. Hidden in a back room Jason finds Holly, and within minutes they are locking lips. In the past Jason “was always worried” about kissing a girl, but now Jason goes as far to say “kissing’s not so tricky” and even has the confidence to stroke her neck (275). At the beginning of the chapter Jason didn’t even have the confidence to “Blow her a kiss” (259). Unlike me, Jason took full advantage of his power with his new perspective on life.
Sixth grade--that’s when it started for me.

Puberty hit me early, but not in the way that it does for everyone. I was fat and sweaty (hence the nickname Piggy), making me an easy target for John Sorenson and his followers. It would have been easy for me to punch one of them, but I usually never resorted violence. So, instead of standing up for myself, I endured it for five long months. Our counselors told us embracing the names would make the bullies stop, but it didn’t. Jason didn’t employ this same method with Maggot, and I can see why; accepting a nickname is self defeating. It was May of sixth grade when I snapped. We had our quotidian after-school kickball game, but today was different because it was sixth grade versus seventh grade. We had called it the last inning, saying that the next run would win when I came up to kick. Of course I was heckled with Piggy and the oinking and squealing, but if anything, that just encouraged me to kick the shit out of the ball. On the second pitch, I smacked the ball into the outfield and rounded second base. With no outs, I elected to stay at third and was accepting a high five from one of my teammates when the rubber kickball slapped me in the back. I turned to see where the bullet came from and saw John five yards away oinking and yelling, “You’re out! Go back to the dugout… or should I say pigpen?” That was it for me. I cocked my elbow back and let my arm guide my knuckles to his left brow, costing him seven stitches. I did

share with Jason the feeling of relief immediately after the incident, but that is where our similarities end.
Jason and I were reprimanded in considerably differently ways.

Even though Jason had inflicted physical damage to Neal’s calculator, he got off scotch free with both the school and his parents. In my case, I had to write a letter to John apologizing to him, and my parents grounded me for a month. While Jason was out having the night of his life at the disco, I was crying in my room after my parents had yelled at me for bullying. And I also genuinely felt like a bully after punching him. John didn’t only stop talking to me, but stopped coming to the kickball games. My conscience made me believe that this was my fault. Contrarily, Jason knew it was by his power that these events occurred which made him feel on top of the world. That kickball game caused me to act differently when bullied. I’ve reverted back to my old ways -- I accept it and try to laugh it off, no matter how bad I feel. I acquired another nickname in seventh grade, but instead of discouraging the nickname Penguin, I embraced. To this day, my close friends and girlfriend call me Penguin, even though it once left me crestfallen. Jason and I may both have stood up in the face of bullying, but our lives were changed in different ways as a result.

Jason walked out of Mr. Nixon’s office full of confidence from grassing on the bullies at his school, but when I punched my middle school enemy in the eye, I felt nothing but shame. In the book Black Swan Green, Jason grows from being the Maggot that everyone thinks of

him as to the guy who’s able to confidently kiss the hot girl in the back room. My story doesn’t end the same. If anything I’ve lost confidence through my adolescent experience. Our youth is a time to learn, and through our experiences Jason and I have learned our own lessons.