So I want to make this post to sorta lay out some ideas that I am planning on expanding further in a critical response paper. Basically my thesis will be something like "A large part of Jason's coming of age is manifest or caused by his realization of the importance of good communication." That is a very tentative thesis mind you--don't hate.
In essence, Jason seems to mature proportionally to how much he is willing to communicate and open up to other people. In the beginning of the novel, before he has hardly come of age at all, we see Jason talking very little, and feigning knowledge instead of trying to alleviate his ignorance when he doesn't understand something.Before talking with other people, Jason thinks that the forest is huge, that gypsies are mooches (or at least that they are incomprehensible and want the land), that Julia prefers her room, and that he wants to be a part of the "hairy barbarian" group, to name a few.
It is only through talking with Eva that he learns a lot more about poetry, and about his values. Through conversations with her he is able to discover more about himself, and learn how to be truthful. Through talking with the gypsies, he learns their side of the story, and better understands the nuances in that whole situation. By talking with the carpenter dude he learns that the forest is really quite small, and not so scary after all (he also learns more about the mysterious woman and the house in the woods). When he opens up to Julia, he connects more with her and learns that she knew about his poetry, which makes him feel much better than before, when he was worried she would find out. He also learns that they should have traded rooms a long time ago--an act that would have been so easy to pull off had they only been aware of each others' feelings. It was through communication with Dean and Holly that Jason got through the Maggot chapter, and when Jason finally seems to be comfortable with himself it is when he communicates far more than socially normal by grassing on Neal Brose.
While some of these examples may not seem like much, I think that they add up to show how important communication is, and I think that Jason comes of age as he recognizes this importance.
Communication is an integral part of friendships and relationships, and I've been saying that for a few years now. When you express what you want, everyone is happier even if you don't get what you want because now there is understanding. If the gypsies had said in the first place that they didn't want a permanent settlement, there would have been no conflict at all in the first place!
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure that's true. I get the sense that they were basically going to get this settlement whether they wanted it or not, because the government decided they'd rather have them in one place. The people Jason meets in the forest seem like they're planning on fighting that, too, and that would still happen even if the people in BSG knew that the Gypsies didn't want to stay there.
DeleteJason also communicates a lot with himself, if that makes sense. He has a lot of inner dialogue with Maggot and Unborn Twin and I think that the more the book progresses, the less he has these inner conversations because he is learning to talk to other people. He drives himself a bit crazy and doesn't have positive self image while he only talks to himself, but once he opens up, he grows a lot.
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