I guess thinking about opening scenes in movies and opening sentences in texts has gotten to me and become permanently imprinted in my mind. The first words in the excerpt for Black Swan Green are “Do not set foot in my office.” This is a rule that Jason (and his sister and apparently mother) are required to follow. I feel like this sentence really sets up Jason’s life to appear rigid, structured, and out of his control. There are so many situations where Jason is a follower of rules and has no authority to change or affect his situation. He can’t go into a room in his own house, he can’t control his stutter, and he can’t say what he wants to say to his friends and family. These are only a few of the many sitations where he has no power at all.
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I agree Jesse and to even delve even deeper than that, Jason can’t even control himself. When I first started reading the text, after seeing him mention ‘Hangman’, ‘Unborn Twin’ and ‘Maggot’ I started to think that maybe Jason had a disassociative identity disorder or schizophrenia or he just saw hallucinations but it just came down to that he himself was his biggest obstacle. Yes, he is surrounded by people that want nothing more than to control his life but even he can’t handle his own problems without humanizing his ‘faults’ per se through these names and therefore relieving himself the burden of taking credit for his own actions or problems.