Danbi's Deliberations

After Benji's job well done creating waffle cones, Martine pats Benji on the head twice to acknowledge his accomplishment. While intentions may have been good, this head pat is met with discomfort, uncertainty, and surprise, and for good reason. Personally, I found this scene to be very interesting because Benji describes how the action can be taken differently based on whether Martine is a black or white man. However, Martine's race is ambiguous so the boys cannot necessarily figure out the true implications of this head-patting incident. I don't necessarily think Martine meant anything bad by this action but I totally understand why Benji and the other boys were offended. Whether Martine is black or white, the head patting incident can be taken as condescending and uncomfortable but Martine's race can escalate the degree to which it is so.   Should Martine be black, the head patting incident can still be considered disrespectful or belittling but instead of being seen...

While flipping back through the book, I noticed a peculiar detail -- both the first and the last chapters of Black Swan Green are titled "January Man". As a result, intrigued, I went back to compare the Jason that we knew from the beginning of the story to the very end and it's clear to see that Jason has grown in many ways -- some more noticeable than the rest.  One of the most noticeable ways Jason has grown from the beginning to the end of the novel is his view on the importance of social standings and fitting in. Throughout the novel, we see Jason avoiding certain people or actions simply because they would give him a bad rep amongst his other male peers. Yet, I never really found myself finding this a major fault in Jason just because I empathized and kind of understood him. At his age, it is COMPLETELY normal to ache to fit in and want to be liked and to top it off, if I was threatened with severe bullying and the things that Jason has gone through as the "bott...