Goose Fair - a learning opportunity for Jason

    After last Friday’s discussion, I wanted to write my blog post about Goose Fair. I think it’s a kind of turning point for Jason and how he perceives himself, and we touched on a lot of interesting aspects that I wanted to explore more. 

In the Goose Fair chapter, Ross shows weakness for the first time in the book. One of the factors in play when Ross loses his wallet is that he’s been relocated from the familiarity of school to the fair, where a smaller percentage of people are under his influence. We see him without his posse to back him up, and the reality of how people perceive him comes through. It turns out that Ross doesn’t have a lot of real, genuine allies. In class someone called Ross’s relationships with people “political friendships,” which I think portrays the situation aptly. When Kelly Moran is talking to Jason and Dean about the lost wallet, she takes immense pleasure in the fact that Ross is going to be in trouble. She and Debby Crombie spell out the dynamics of Ross’s popularity explicitly, saying that even though “Half of Black Swan Green… is in his gang’ ‘That doesn’t mean they like him,” (Mitchel 250). I think the whole situation shows Jason that Ross isn’t some all-powerful, controlling overlord; he’s just a popular and intimidating fifteen year old without a lot of real friends. Jason’s ultimate decision to give Ross’s wallet back is at least partially influenced by this realization that Ross is just as vulnerable as anyone else. The combination of learning about Ross’s relationship with his father and then interacting with his own dad in a friendly, gives Jason some insight and probably compassion for Ross. 

By the end of the chapter, justice has seemingly been dealt; Jason remains (kind of) innocent while karma punishes Ross. The scene tells us a lot about Jason’s character. It’s hard to say whether his intentions were pure, but it seems like he made the correct choice when it mattered. It’s easy to see the appeal of keeping the wallet; Ross has made Jason’s life hell, and Jason doesn’t have to directly interact with Ross at all to get back at him like this. Even as readers there’s a sense that Jason surely deserves some small win. There’s also the added complication that the money isn’t even Ross’s to begin with; Ross took it from his dad who kept it from the tax collectors. Learning about consequences inflicted by Ross’s dad changes the dynamics though, and it’s relieving when Jason chooses to return the money and save Ross from his father. This choice also establishes Jason as the person who cares to much, solidifying how we’ve been reading him as the whole book. During the interaction between Ross and Jason, we see Ross again as a panicked fifteen year old while Jason appears to be much more mature, playing the bigger person. And in the end poetic justice is delivered for Jason, without his having to play a role in delivering it. 

Just like the rest of the scenes in Mitchell’s novel, there are layers of Ross’s accident. There are a couple interesting tie-ins to early and later chapters, and all of these things add depth to the scene and tie it more closely into the narrative of Jason’s life. For example, Mr. Kempsy leaves the line “The brutal may have been molded by a brutality you cannot exceed,” on his desk for Jason to find, and this gives Jason insight into what Ross is going through (Mitchell 212). And as we talked about in class, Norman Bate’s advice is to “sneak up on King Turd… and slice – his – tendons,” suggesting Jason retaliates with violence (Mitchell 217). Jason doesn’t turn to violence, but the universe does, bringing Bate’s suggestion to fruition. When thinking about the money he found, Jason suggests that he could buy “clothes that’ll make Dawn Madden dance with me at the Christmas Village Hall Disco,” (Mitchell 254). Jason ends up with Holly at the disco, which goes much better than he could have expected, and doesn’t need the money at all. All of these scenarios serve to illustrate that things work out for Jason, and he ends up okay while Ross ends up losing a leg. I felt like the whole chapter added scope to Jason’s life, showing him that things the world is bigger than his school and that there is life outside of and after the hell he is going through now. 

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