A couple of days ago in class we had time to write about and discuss the structure of the chapter "Bridle Path" in Black Swan Green. We talked about how Jason Taylor's journey to find the end of the path is very episodic; Jason faces many obstacles along the way, like being chased by Dobermans, witnessing the fight between Burch and Wilcox, and ending up on the lawn of the "Little Malvern Loonybin."
I think Jason's way of narrating these scenes is very reflective of his character. A number of people in classed raised the point that the chapter is similar in structure to Tolkien's The Hobbit, which makes sense when considering Jason's age and interests. Throughout Black Swan Green, we have seen Jason's perspective and quirks as a thirteen-year-old boy, including how he finds excitement in everyday things. Jason's "incursion" into his father's office is an obvious example of Jason's vivid imagination and adrenaline. On the second page of the novel, he writes:
"Dad's swivelly chair's a lot like the Millennium Falcon's laser tower. I blasted away at the skyful of Russian MiGs streaming over the Malverns. Soon tens of thousands of people between here and Cardiff owed me their lives. The glebe was littered with mangled fusilages and blackened wings. I'd shoot the Soviet airmen with tranquilizer darts as they pressed their ejector seats. Our marines'll mop them up. I'd refuse all medals. 'Thanks, but no thanks,' I'd tell Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan when Mum invited them in, 'I was just doing my job.'"
He goes on to describe his jump downstairs to answer the door as a "death-defying bound," emphasizing his mentality as a child: like many other kids, Jason at times exaggerates when he is storytelling, and little, unique things like jumping downstairs excite him. In addition to his imaginative language, Jason mentions the map of Middle-earth he has in his bedroom at the beginning of the chapter "Bridle Path." His interest in Tolkien's work and active imagination seem to influence how he narrates his own life, so to me it isn't very surprising that "Bridle Path" has elements of episodic, fantasy-style writing.
Another part of the structure of "Bridle Path" that stood out to me when I was reading it is that the various events that take place really flow together, without distinct transitions. Jason doesn't clearly explain exactly how much time has passed or how he gets from one place to another. For example, on page 77, after the scene of the fight, Jason moves on to being at the Christmas-tree plantation. After Dean says, "C'mon, Jason, better be off now," there is no description of what happens immediately after that. The next line of the novel just describes being at the Christmas-tree plantation.
These weak transitions made the chapter slightly confusing to me as a reader. I found myself wondering how much time passed between such scenes and what could have possibly transpired between them. These unclear parts of the chapter might reflect Jason's own perspective as a narrator too. Not only is he in an imaginative frame of mind, but he might also be confused about how the things took place. (The scene with the Dobermans and the time at the "Loonybin" are both very surreal, and made me wonder whether they actually took place.) In this way, the structure of "Bridle Path" is definitely a reflection of Jason's mindset and own potential confusion about the strange events of the day.
I like how you link the transitions in the chapter to the way Jason perceives the events of the day. I have to say, I'm a fan of his transitions. He usually ends each section, or each encounter, with a real zinger of a line. Examples: "Hate smells of burnt fireworks." or "A vapor trail gashed the sky./But the sky healed itself. Without fuss." or "Rain erased the twentieth century. Rain turned the world to whites and grays." or "Debby Crombie's mouth made a perfect O." Those lines read like poetry to me. He's really good at ending a scene with a line that makes it sound really complete. I think in addition to being a reflection of the way Jason sees the world, this broken up style of narration is an excuse for him to be poetic. These little episodes are a little like stanzas, and, when read together, they read cohesively like a poem.
ReplyDeleteI think that the fiction-like style that he uses at the beginning of the chapter shows how much he grows throughout the chapter. For example, the passage that you mentioned about Jason fantasizing to shoot down the Soviets contrasts the more realistic picture of war he gets when he sees Tom Yew's nervous breakdown. Overall, by the end of the chapter, he has really realized some of the more serious things in life.
ReplyDeleteThe aspect of "fantasy" in Jason's own narrative of his life is maybe not that surprising--or, rather, it might be paradoxically seen as realistic, in that he is investing this solitary Sunday walk with a kind of imaginary "epic" purpose from the start (to "discover the hidden tunnel at the end of the path"). He's not just taking a walk; he's playing a game, and his narration reflects this. He experiences the encounter with the Dobermans in this heightened, surrealistic, action-oriented way, and it doesn't maybe matter much what 'really' happened. (Just as it doesn't matter whether "Badger" really is as psycho as Dean says he is--if this story is out there, that story becomes the reality. No one is looking to confirm it with facts.)
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