Morality In Black Swan Green

During one’s teenage years, how he or she is viewed by others often have a huge impact on their mindset, decisions, and actions. In Black Swan Green by David Mitchel, the reader follows a year of Jason Taylor’s life. Going through adolescence, he faces the pains of growing up: pressures from a divided household, a stutter that affects his ability to speak under pressure, and bullying from his fellow classmates. While he initially craved popularity, his experiences throughout the novel caused him to change paths. Jason’s decision to give Ross Wilcox’s wallet back shows that he sees morality being more important than popularity as a result of his own isolation from society. In the beginning of the novel, Jason tries to fit into society by …show more content…
Whether it was making fun of Jason’s stutter or physically bullying him in the form of a grundy: “A grundy’s where a bunch of kids yank you up, hard, by your underpants. Your feet leave the ground and the crotch of your pants is forced up your bum-crack so your balls and dick get crushed,” Jason’s life was made horrendous by Wilcox and his fellow perpetrators (216). He had to constantly avoid the bullies and while he did stand up to them as shown by not giving them the satisfaction of hearing him scream during the grundy, it was not significant enough to make a difference. However, at the goose fair, he comes across Wilcox’s wallet in a bumper car ride and finds six hundred pounds, an absurdly large amount of money. He is faced with a moral decision; does he give it keep all the money for himself, spend it at his will as a form of revenge against Wilcox or does he do the right thing and return it to Wilcox? While he contemplates this, he hears a story about what Wilcox’s father did to his wife when she lost a strip of stamps, “Gordon Wilcox beat that women so black and blue, the hospital had to feed her through a tube for a week” (251). Jason realizes that, as much as he wanted revenge, it was not worth the potential punishment Wilcox would have to endure from his father. At this point, he has made his decision that morality overrules popularity, and proceeds to give the wallet back to Wilcox. His final words before departing holds heavy significance: “The poor kid,” referring to Wilcox, showing that he pities him (255). This shows that he is able to look pass the perception that popularity is of upmost importance, forgetting the popular side of Wilcox and pitying on him because of his incapability of showing any signs of