One thing I do know is that Julia seems like such a strong and confident character because of our narrative point of view. Think about how differently events around their house would be described from Julia's point of view. We would see less of her biting remarks and more of the insecurity that plagues most if not all of us at around Julia's age. I think the act that Julia rarely lets on to us/Jason that she is unsure is what makes Julia such a great figure to Jason. It's just interesting to think about Julia's take on the Black Swan Green era of her life.
Friday, April 26, 2019
The Real Protagonist?
In the last chapter of David Mitchell's Black Swan Green, we get a pretty conclusive ending, with Jason visiting some of his old haunts with a different perspective from the past. However, we've talked enough about Jason, I'd rather focus on a different, but equally as interesting character, Julia. One interesting (slightly meta) comment made by Dr. Mitchell that really intrigued me was the fact that Julia does "get the last word". Besides that, Julia does seem to have an exceptional amount of influence, not just over Jason but her mother as well in the form of support for her reentering the working world. Where does she get this surprising amount of narrative power? From her apparent wit, or its use in conjunction with her strong opinions, who knows.
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This is a very interesting thought. I admired Julia throughout most of Black Swan Green because of her wit and how she seemed to be in control of her life. Since we see Julia through, Jason's eyes she always seems like a cool big sister who doesn't have any insecurities. I agree, that it would be very interesting to see this story from Julia's point of view and how she would react to the divorce. I would also be interested to see how Jason would react when he realizes Julia has insecurities later on.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Julia tries her best to fill the "older sibling" role. She's got a better footing in her life than Jason. Granted, everyone has their insecurities, but (because she's older) she's more aware of what's going on in their family. If we read Black Swan Green in Julia's perspective, I feel that we'd see a more in-depth narrative of her trying to stay strong for Jason.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how much our feelings have changed since chapter one. We were so mad at julia for calling jason thing, and now we are so proud of her standing up for jason. I guess it goes to show how both characters, and jason's perception of them can come full circle in the structure of this book
ReplyDeleteI love Julia, and I'd love to see Julia's perspective on things too. Especially I'd like to read her perspective on their parents' divorce, since it's implied she knew a lot more and a lot sooner than Jason. How hard was it for her? Was she blindsided, or was she more privy to their discontent as a child? Did she worry about Jason? I'd love to know.
ReplyDeleteI kind of wonder if Julia went through her own character arc that caused her to be nicer to Jason. At the beginning, she's exclusively referring to him as "thing" and arguing with him over dishes, but at some point she seems to realize what Jason's going through and tries to help him out. But overall, she's a really great character and I'm glad that we see both mean Julia and supportive Julia because it makes her seem more realistic.
ReplyDeleteI also think it would be interesting to see what Julia deems as important throughout the same time period as Jason. We see that Jason doesn't really focus on the stuff about his parents except in a few chapters and mostly focuses on his social life. I wonder if Julia would focus on her social life as well or if she would talk more about her family situation.
ReplyDeleteIn Jason's eyes Julia is a strong, impenetrable figure who seemingly has no insecurities, is confident, and knows what to do in every situation. We see her quick wit when she claps back at the dinner table when their uncle being a dick. Contrasted with the perfect image Jason has of Julia, it would be interesting to read from Julia's perspective though to see what's going on in her head when she handles problems like her parents' divorce.
ReplyDeleteJulia ended up being one of my favorite characters. She serves the role of almost a parent towards the middle of the book, as both of Jason's parents are too preoccupied to help him out. She's consistently there for him, and she gives him the confidence to follow the path that he wants to.
ReplyDeleteI think it would have been really interesting if black swan green was split into Jason's POV and Julia's POV. Then we would have been able to get inside info that Jason couldn't tell us about what was going on with Jason's mom and dad and how she feels about Uncle Brian.
ReplyDeleteThere's a revealing moment in that final conversation with Julia, when they both realize they coveted the other's bedroom and that if they'd only spoken about this, they would have just swapped and both been happy--Jason expresses disbelief at the idea that Julia could ever be afraid of anything. She makes a joking reference to her "fearless facade" and admits being "scared witless by all manner of things." We see this confident, "bulletproof" facade throughout the book, but her comment here suggests that, like everyone else in the novel, there's more going on than is evident on the surface, and Julia's confidence and verbal smoothness is partly a bulwark against expressing these fears and insecurities. There are so many ways that, at the end of this novel, we see Jason learning that there's much more to the picture than he'd originally thought.
ReplyDeleteI love Salma's idea of splitting the book between Jason and Julia's POVs. As much as I appreciate Jason, I'm a sucker for a strong female character. As to whether or not she's the protagonist, we see Jason go through the most change. That usually indicates the true protagonist. But as Mr. Mitchell mentioned, it's clear that Julia is going through a transitional period in her life as well.
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