final chapters

Souvenirs

This was the chapter where I felt that Jason was finally growing up and starting to listen and seeing reality. He was really coming in to his own. I had a bunch of favorite quotes from this chapter.

“Wish I could be thirteen again” –Dad

“Then I thought, you’ve obviously forgotten what it’s like.”- Jason

He meets Danny, someone new to look up to, and someone who has a different perspective on his dad.

He wants to grow up in this chapter, like when he uses his dad’s razor.

This chapter was one last hurrah with his dad and his childhood, souvenirs of his childhood, memories of what time with his family was like.

He witnesses his dad really drunk and as a suck up to his boss.

The best character in this chapter was Rosamund. Rosamund helps to put things in to perspective for Jason and his worries about the watch he broke.

“It’s a watch you broke! Not a future. Not a life. Not a back bone.”

“You don’t know my parents.”

“The question here is, do you?” (190)

Jason sees a different side of his mother was well; what she’s like at work. I was proud of Jason for standing up to those girls and telling his mom that he saw them stealing from the store. He could have tried to act cool with them because he was attracted to one of them, and let them get away with stealing, but he shows a brave noble side that shows his respect for his mother and what she’s been pursuing.

Despite all these souvenirs of memories and objects, rewards from his parents Jason says in the end “Good moods’re are fragile as eggs….bad moods’re as fragile as bricks.”

Maggot

This chapter was full of advice, realizations and proof that life goes on.

“Hate doesn’t need a way. Who or even what is ample” (198)

Debbie Crombie being pregnant: “The Yews’ll help raise it Kelly Reckons. Bring Tom back to life in a way, I s’pose.” (206)

Holly Deblin is introduced. She is the girl that he hasn’t noticed because he has been so interested in Dawn Madden. Holly tells Jason: “You’re not a maggot. Don’t let dickheads decide what you are.” (211)

I wished that Jason would have spent more time thinking about the copies of life lessons that he saw copies of on his teacher’s desk. I’m glad he took a copy for himself, and it may have been the impedes for him standing up for himself for the first time. “Your breath smells really bad Ross.” (215) This tactic may have almost backfired, but it leads to an interaction with the bus driver Norman Bates who reminds Jason “Life’s a Borstal.” I’m not sure if Borstal is a jail, detention center or nut house, but Jason begins to realize not doing something may be as bad as acting.

Knife Grinder

This chapter seemed like a set up for later on.

The gift from Jason’s father, the TV seemed shady from the very beginning. It was as if his father was trying to win his favor.

The idea of the sound of a knife grinding stuck with me whenever Jason’s parents argued and when the town was arguing over the Gypsies.

Jason says his of his parents arguments: “Questions aren’t questions. Questions are bullets.” & “Their arguments’re speed chess these days.” (223)

The part with the dog was a bit of a stretch stealing Jason’s bag, but it was a set up for later on in the novel.

Goose Fair

This was the remnants of Jason’s innocence. It was fun with bumper cars, candy apples and halls of mirrors.

We find out more about the school bully Ross and what he’s capable of.

Ross insults Dawn which gives Jason some confidence that maybe there’s hope he can have the girl.

Jason also made unlikely allies with Allan the Gypsy boy.

I wished that Jason hadn’t given back the wallet, it seemed illogical and yet noble.

Dawn crushed Jason’s spirits one last time when he sees her with Grant Birch and then Ross gets in to the accident and Dawn never leaves Ross’ side.

Disco

Jason finally comes clean about the abuse he and so many others have endured all semester.

He gets a lesson in reputations and that perhaps he’s like Bruce Wayne, an average guy who moonlights as a superhero. On some level Jason could be a superhero.

At the disco, Jason gets some acceptance from some unlikely people for standing up to Ross’ gang.

And then he finally gets the acceptance he needs from a girl, Holly. “You can only have one first kiss” (275)

“This moment’d taken twelve months to whoosh here” (277)

Rosamund was right, Jason confesses to his father and then his father confesses his infidelity to Jason.

January Man

A new year? A new life? Jason feels reborn?

The neighbors wonder if when Jason moves : “But you’ll be looking forward to a brand new school” (281) Who would be looking forward to a new school? He just got some acceptance, and a girl, now he has to start all over. Maybe a little wiser, and still learning.

We finally learn that the woman he met when he smashed his watch was real. I had almost forgotten about that, and it felt disjointed to leave this til the last moment. Although he did seems less crazy now that the mystery was solved. But why wait a year?

The OXO tin contains the memories of his family still together. It’s his one secret place to keep what is important to him.

When they are moving out he has an honest conversation with Julia. She knows he was the author of those poems all along. Jason burned them all up as his final act, putting his past behind him.

“It’ll be all right…on the end Jace.”

“It doesn’t feel very all right.”

“That’s because it’s not the end” (294)