Themes In David Mitchell's Black Swan Green

Jason works well with others because his name is jason for darn sake they made a movie of that, (and a cool one too).

In the story, “Black Swan Green”, the main character, Jason, keeps complaining about “Hangman”. When Jason talks about Hagman, he is referring to his stammer. Jason’s stammer is a big hurdle in his life. One example of how Jason’s stammer is a big hurdle in his life is that he doesn’t feel that his life would be worth living if someone finds out about his stammer. On page 27 of “Black Swan Green”, it states, “I’m going to stammer worse than I’ve ever stammered in my life.”

In the incident when Jason appears with the police after the school shooting, the officer tells of the events, Jason’s apparent heroism, but the fact that Jason had killed another, despite the reasons behind it, he states “What I understand is that my son experienced murder in his heart, and chose not to rise above that impulse. I understand that my son is a murderer.”- Quote, Reg (Coupland, 2003, p.77)

On the contrary, the Heissan returned a malevolent spirit while Jason never really died in the beginning. While the Heissan has one personality, not the same can be said about Jason: " Jason developed a second personality. While Jason was a scared, lonely little boy, this other self, which I will call The Mask for simplicity’s sake, was a more assertive, aggressive individual, fearless in the face of any hardship or opponent. When Jason put The Mask on, he wasn’t a little boy any more. He was someone strong, someone powerful, not only capable of surviving, but thriving in the wilderness surrounding Camp Crystal Lake." (Bloodsprayer – psychology behind Jason) When he goes into his innocent personality, Jason becomes a lot more clumsy and not as well formed as his other half. In conclusion, the Headless Horseman can be compared to many movie and book villains, mostly the killers of the pop

“Black Swan Green” is a story about a highschool boy, named Jason Taylor. Jason has a stammer unlike his other peers at his horrible high school. He’s the kid that dreads talking in front of the class because he sees himself as different. He’s afraid to be judged for his flaws. Also, he has a love for poetry he must hide from everyone. He can’t express his feelings for poetry or anything because he's too scared to be himself. In this story, his mentor, Madame Crommelynck teaches him to accept himself and show the world the real Jason Taylor. Jason has many conflicts throughout the story, especially with himself. On the contrary, Madame Crommelynck relates Jason’s high school peers to hairy barbarians. She asks Jason, “So you want a double life. One Jason Taylor who seeks approval of hairy barbarians. Another Jason Taylor is Eliot Bolivar, who seeks approval of the literary world. Is that so impossible?” (Mitchell, 154). Jason wants to fit in at his school, while Eliot Bolivar wants to be accepted in the literary world. Jason thinks to become a good poet he needs to be accepted by his peers but poetry is for yourself. It’s your thoughts and feelings. Poetry is not for an audience to criticise. To be a poet, you need to be yourself and then you’ll truly be accepted.

Once he began manipulating Medea, this made him realize, that he can manipulate anyone he chooses to. After he had captured the Golden Fleece, he abandoned Medea and married the princess of Corinth hoping to stable his wealth and gain more power. He, in turn, manipulated the royal family only to have the consistent power he needed and desired. This had then begun to escalate. Jason is now displaying a pattern of his manipulation. As Jason begins to free himself from his “evil” ex-wife, Jason manipulates the past into a lie and much bigger problem from his side of the story. His dishonesty makes his side of the story more believable and by doing so, his manipulation skills had become more deceivable. Jason is in denial of the many things Medea had done for him and when he told his story, he used omission in order to deceive his listeners. Jason then says, “Dark threats cast out against the majesties/ of Corinth, count as veriest gain thy path of exile.” (27). He then blames Medea and having Creon ban her from Corinth.

Altogether, Jason illustrates that he is the alpha lion and that his application of power drastically affects his relationships.

The major trait that leads to Jason’s downfall is his overwhelming pride. Medea knows she can use his ego against him and says, “I have reproached myself. ‘Fool’, I said, ‘why am I so mad?’” (p.53). Medea toys with Jason’s need to be above others and always right. Jason doesn’t even think twice about Medea’s sudden change to a servile attitude and accepts how her “mind has turned to better reasoning” (p.54). The arrogance of Jason makes him blind to what is happening around him. Medea is obviously manipulating this weakness to work to her just like how everything works for her: the children work to kill the bride and the deaths work to exact revenge upon Jason.

His peripeteia occurs when Medea curses the royal family of Corinth in a rage of passion, reversing his upward rise to power. To further Jason’s suffering, Medea poisons Glauce and Creon and kills Jason’s children. This incident leaves Jason with nothing: he has no power, no bloodline, and the citizens of Corinth, his would-be subjects, sympathize with Medea and hate Jason. Jason loses all traces to any sort of home or family, he suffers because there is no “greater grief than the loss of one’s native land.” Medea leaves Jason with a final blow to his happiness – the knowledge of his own death. “For thee, behold, death draweth on, / Evil and lonely, like thine heart:, the hands / Of thine old Argo, rotting where she stands, / Shall smite thine head in twain.” (77 – 78) With this revelation, Jason is left with nothing but hopelessness and misery.

There are also parts in the play where one may begin to have an understanding of Jason’s motives. In Jason’s first argumentative speech to Medea, he claims that money, possessions and social status is of no importance to him. He declares that his choice to marry the royal Glauce is of good intention, not merely because he is bored with Medea’s bed. Later, when Medea begs Jason to forgive her for her foolishness, he shows kindness and understanding towards her. After all that Medea said about him and his new wife-to-be, Glauce, he states that he is still willing to provide Medea and their sons with anything they may need. Medea pleads for Jason to convince Creon to let their sons stay in Corinth and Jason agrees to try to convince both Creon and Glauce to allow the boys to stay. Jason is still compassionate, showing at least some loyalty to Medea and his family. At the very end of the play, after Medea has killed Glauce, Creon and their two sons, Jason admits that she has ‘destroyed’ him. Jason is completely shattered; everything has been ripped away from him. It’s also unfair when Medea refuses to let Jason bury and mourn the bodies of their sons. Some may feel it is impossible to feel no sympathy for him.

In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, for me it talks about how a person is being blind to know the truth because of the people who are higher than them. It says that the allegory is a cave of men chained with their heads forced to remained forward facing toward a wall; I can say that it talks about us, the people who become prisoners to know the truth. And the shadow that forms through the help of fire and wall are the false information or truth that we get from other people. In today’s generation, I think it’s still happening because we are still fed by lies and being forced to live a life accepting this false reality as truth.

In total, Jason illustrates that he is the alpha lion, and that his power will only affect his relationship based on how he uses his power.

Though Jason knows his children will leave him, he still makes sure he provides them with a little assurance so they do not initially suffer after they leave him.

Courage is an essential human quality. Facing fears against all odds is a feature in many novels. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is no exception. Many characters depicts the quality. Some in normal situations others, take on terrifying tasks in a unique and original way. Scout, Jem, Atticus, and Ms. Dubose show bravery in many areas of their lives, one character risks their careers, others have a situation that lacks massive consequences.

Cyanide poisoning is caused by exposure to compounds that produce cyanide(CN−) ions. The cyanide ions interfere with cellular respiration and you can guess the rest.