Truth, Poetry, and Conclusions; the Ending of Black Swan Green Explained

In the chapter Solarium, Madame Crommelynck says that “True poetry is truth,”  (Mitchell, 155). Madame Crommelynck also teaches the complexities of beauty and letting things be. She teaches Jason the magic behind his real name, the magic behind existence untainted by shameful secrets and pointless lies. Solarium is the chapter that makes this book.


 Jason Taylor cacks himself a lot. In fact, he was, as he admits himself, “A human punchbag,” (Mitchell, 276). He started this book explaining the rules that terrorize him on a daily; what it means socially to be called by various names or nicknames, what hangman’s commandments are, and chronologically first: do not pick up the phone, do not enter dad’s office. All rules he breaks in pursuit of a truth that surpasses social truths and obligations. Jason ends the book exactly as Madame Crommelynck taught him to; Jason formed his conclusions in being true.












        A lot happened at the end. Jason came clean about the bullying, his parents also came clean about the affair and divorced, even hangman began to abate his presence as Jason was open about who he was (to be fair, many people already knew about the impediment/outed him to bully). Overall, the truth of this novel, despite not being an actual poem, makes it poetry. The poems that parallel do help with this comparison, but overall this book is a poem, at least within the story, because it is truth.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nudity, Girlhood, and the Child Within; How Little Girl becomes Evelyn Nesbit's Inner Child

       The concept of the inner child is one often explored by therapists, modern media, and online life gurus living out of their vans. This very same concept of the inner child; unresolved childhood traumas becoming formative elements of adults’ lives, is explored through Evelyn Nesbit’s relationship with Little Girl. Evelyn Nesbit is the exact character who would need a strong inner child, as she had been exploited from a young age, and continuously exploited since.       On page 42, Evelyn steps out of her car after her chauffeur opens the door for her, and kneels down in front of Little Girl. After a description of the little girl’s appearance, we are given two sentences back to back. “She gazed at Evelyn without curiosity.  She was the most beautiful child Evelyn had ever seen,” (Doctorow 42). This sequence– a description of the girl’s qualities, ending in a short sentence about her not recognizing Evelyn, swiftly followed by Evelyn’s a...
Read more

The Ultimate Performative Male; Lee Oswald as Depicted in “Libra”

Image
The term “Performative male”– a man who performs for women as women’s ideal man to get gratification and often sex– is a term utterly befitting of Lee Oswald’s character in “Libra”. In his case however, instead of performing for physical gratification, he performs for emotional gratification and a sense of superiority that keeps his sly smirk on his face. His audience in his performance is everyone, but he feels superior to those who don’t understand him, and recognized by those who do; other communists.  From the start of the novel, we see a severely dyslexic Lee attempt to read the massive “Das Kapital” and other books to show off his elite communism. This initial performance is met by a non-understanding audience. Nobody gets him. He’s not like other Americans. This lack of understanding/pushback does however bring him a sense of superiority because he is unique in his community. Later, we see him join the marines, with the manual memorized, being a know-it-all. But gratificatio...
Read more

Kindred could not have ended any other way; the power of being unpredictable and inevitable.

Kindred is a novel in which you spend a lot of time wanting to read ahead– finish just another page– to get over the cliffhanger. Nonetheless, there’s an inevitable quality to the novel’s conclusion, and really everything that happens. Of course Rufus didn’t send Dana’s letters to Kevin. Of course Dana had to use her knife. Of course Rufus had to die. Of course Hagar was born. Chekhov’s gun has to go off once introduced; and it always does. The inevitability of this novel’s events are due to foreshadowing. However, thanks to distractions, the readers are kept guessing on what’s to come, and the novel stays unpredictable.  The book ended with a few main conclusions: Dana survived, Hagar was born (of rape no less), Dana had to use her knife, Rufus wanted Dana, and the others were not free. All of these conclusions felt inevitable. For Dana’s knife, it’s almost like Chekhov’s gun in the sense that once it was presented, as well as the dangers that told her she could face it (42-43...
Read more