"It's not the end."

One of the many amazing arcs of Jason Taylor’s narrative in Black Swan Green revolves around his general awareness and expectation of how the world works and how one lives their life. But deeper than that, I think this thread sets up an interesting situation where David Mitchell challenges the notion of “coming-of-age” as a whole.

At the beginning of the novel, one of Jason’s only (or at least one of his biggest) concerns and goals is to do all that he can to be on top of the social hierarchy at school and to be welcomed by the “popular” group. This concept is apparent in several different places, but one example is once Jason gets invited to take the Spooks test. At this point, he is almost reaching his goal, mentions he would do anything to become a Spook, and feels on top of the world. Jason describes:

Mum’d bought Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re new and totally lush. I grabbed five, went upstairs, changed, lay on my bed, ate the biscuits, put on “Mr. Blue Sky” by ELO and played it five or six times, guessing what test the Spooks’d set me. There’s always a test. Swim across the lake in the woods, climb the quarry down Pig Lane, go nightcreeping across some back gardens. Who cares? I’d do it. If I was a Spook, every day’d be as epic as today. (Mitchell 126-127)

Although I do love this scene and seeing him so excited, I feel that Jason fails to realize the complexities of the world in moments such as these, especially when he states “if I was a Spook, every day’d be as epic as today.” Through this line, Jason implies a sort of finite goal for his life, a point that once he reaches, nothing will go wrong and every single day would be great from then on. Becoming a Spook is his ultimate goal at this time, and he seems to feel as though after reaching this point, he would have no more challenging obstacles to live a fulfilled life. In other words, the world through Jason’s eyes is simplistic at the start of this novel: you either are “not cool” and have to live a miserable or so-so life, always working your way upwards, or you are one of those “cool” kids who is having the time of their life each day. Part of his thinking, I believe, comes from his lack of experience at the start of the story because he is so young. Therefore, at the same time, this is a completely realistic reaction and view of the world especially for someone Jason’s age and who now has the opportunity to get everything he has ever wanted.

But I believe that certainly by the end of the novel, and even by the time Jason reaches the end of the “Spooks” chapter where he abandons the group for his friendship with Dean, Jason’s view of the world shifts. Or, a better way to put it would be that Jason’s perspective on the world massively expands. One of my favorite passages from this novel comes on page 290 in the second “January Man,” and I think that it demonstrates Jason’s growth and new perspective on life by the conclusion of this narrative.

The world’s a headmaster who works on your faults. I don’t mean in a mystical or a Jesus way. More how you’ll keep tripping over a hidden step, over and over, till you finally understand… Everything that’s wrong with us, if we’re too selfish or too Yessir, Nosir, Three bags full sir or too anything, that’s a hidden step. Either you suffer the consequences of not noticing your fault forever or, one day, you do notice it, and fix it. Joke is, once you get it into your brain about that hidden step… then BUMP! Down you go, a whole new flight of hidden steps. 

There are always more.

Jason now understands that it’s not just earning your status in school and you’ll be done and have the ultimate success and happiness for all time. He sees that life is a dynamic cycle filled with more complexities, and he discovers that “the world never stops unmaking what the world never stops making” (285). Jason’s mature view on the world at this point is such an accurate and more whole representation of life in general, something that I couldn’t imagine him believing at the beginning of the year 1982. Only after he realizes he “cares too much” and goes back for Dean in “Spooks” (137), to the situations with Ross Wilcox’s wallet, Brose’s calculator, his parents’ divorce, and everything in between does he realize this. Everyone’s world constantly changes unexpectedly, and it’s the thing that can make life extremely tough and ever-evolving for all people, even for a Spook. And by just acknowledging this, I feel that Jason shows tremendous growth from the beginning of the novel. He learned that there will always be another “January Man” waiting around the corner for him, new challenges after he reaches his goals, or a new beginning where there previously just seemed to be an end.

With the brilliant structure and development in this novel, David Mitchell even raises an interesting question that challenges the whole genre itself: is “coming-of-age” ever really possible? Or is it an everlasting cycle that life puts us through? When we come of age in one way and end that journey, does life just set up another path for us to begin coming of age again?? While eating dinner with his family, Jason considers, “often I think boys don’t become men. Boys just get papier-mâchéd inside a man’s mask. Sometimes you can tell the boy is still in there” (127). Jason says himself, fairly early in the novel, that the “boy” is always still inside and that people don’t ever “become men,” and I think that this is the same phenomenon that he is able to describe so concretely in the end with the “hidden steps.” Therefore, could one ever truly complete and fully recount a coming-of-age journey if the world is “always injecting endings into beginnings” (285) and vice versa? 

Jason’s development throughout the novel makes him realize these intricate dynamics of the world and how life puts us on a never-ending ride of “dodgem,” filled with both bumpy patches and smooth moments. He learns how even though this year of his life, his time in Black Swan Green, and his novel may end, there are still challenges and growth that expand beyond all milestones, both establishing more difficulties but also creating hope for the future.

As Julia says in the concluding lines of the book:

“I’ll be all right.” Julia’s gentleness makes it worse. “In the end, Jace.”

“It doesn’t feel very all right.”

“That’s because it’s not the end.” (294)

Mitchell, David. Black Swan Green. New York, Random House, 2007.