Eve's very cool blog

    A large part of the last two novels in this class, Black Swan Green and Sag Harbor, have dealt with self editing, changing some part of yourself for various reasons. For Jason and Benji, this editing serves a clear purpose: to fit in with their peers  (very important). While I'd also make a comparison between Ester and Alison, their editing is slightly different. And obviously Holden does not make many attempts to hide his true self from anyone he encounters, much less the people he goes to school with (unless he's lying about who he is, which is a whole other issue). I an argument could certainly be made for all of them, but for this relatively short blog post I'll just compare Jason and Benji, who have the most in common in terms of time period and situation.       Jason starts out Black Swan Green  as a version of himself that the reader quickly learns is extremely distorted from the truth. While he worries about his interests (for example,...

     Black Swan Green is a great coming-of-age novel, especially when it comes to a trope associated with the genre: role models. Throughout the book Jason gets helpful (but sometimes questionable in the case of the bus driver Norman Bates) advice from many different people. However, these people are not Jason's role models. That role, for lack of a better word, is reserved for a small group. I will examin the characters of Eva, Hugo, and Julia as role models for Jason. While learns from all of them in different ways, he does not become them, by the end of the book he realizes he must use what they say to become the truest version of himself.      Eva is the most obvious example of a role model for Jason, as she offers instructive lessons to Jason on a regular basis. Jason seeks her approval and is rocked by the observations she makes about him life. The ending of the book can be seen as a result of Eva's teaching, as Jason's actions show he no longer cares...