Jason Needs His Parents


            Jason’s parents are so unaware of what is happening in his life. Throughout the book, they are constantly fighting with each other and their fighting eventually ends in a divorce. But they are so wrapped up in their problems that they have no idea what is going on in Jason’s life and they never seem to make an effort to find out.

For example, they have no idea that Jason likes to write poetry and that he sends it to the parish magazine every week to be published. When Dean Moran falls through the window during their spooks adventure, his parents just assume that Jason and Dean were goofing off. They also know nothing about what is going on with Jason at school. Jason endures some extremely severe bullying that makes his life a living hell. He is tormented everyday by his classmates led by Ross Wilcox. They make fun of his stutter, put mice in his pencil case, stick notes to his back, physically abuse him, and pretty much torment him in every way possible. He has to avoid most of the boys in his class outside of school for fear of being beaten up. Yet his parents have no idea that anything is happening to him. Although Jason doesn’t really talk to his parents about these things, his parents never make an effort to ask Jason about what is happening in his life. This creates a huge disconnect between Jason and his parents because they have no idea what Jason’s life is actually like.

            It seems that Jason wants someone to talk to. When he went to visit Madame Crommelynck he enjoyed talking to her about his poetry and even tells her what is going on in his life. However, eventually Madame Crommelynck moves away, leaving Jason with no one to talk to. He describes coming home to an empty house every day after school and wishes that Julia was not in college or one of his parents would be there to greet him. At school, he takes desperate measures and destroys the calculator so he can tell someone about the bullying. This is the only way he can get the attention of his teachers and parents to let them know what is happening.  Earlier, we discussed pyrrhic victories and this seems like a pyrrhic victory for Jason’s parents. Although, they may be getting personal gain by arguing with each other, this comes at the cost of become separated from Jason’s life.  

Comments

  1. Katie CApril 28, 2019 at 5:02 PM

    I really like that David Mitchell showed Dean's family dynamics, almost comparing them to Jason's. While Jason never talks to his parents about his life and there's a lot of tension in his household, Dean's parents seem really happy, and his family overall seems very open with each other. It's kind of interesting to wonder whether that's had an effect on Dean's ability to not care about the spooks and popularity.

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  2. Dylan BApril 28, 2019 at 8:25 PM

    I actually find this to be one of Jason's strengths--despite his inability/unwillingness to communicate with his parents about his problems, he is able to find guidance and compassion from the people whom he meets.

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    1. SJApril 29, 2019 at 9:17 PM

      ^ this, seeing how well Jason navigates his (pretty scary) social/school life with little support from the people that should care for him the most makes him seem so much stronger.

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  3. Salma El-NaggarApril 28, 2019 at 8:53 PM

    It really did hurt my heart a little when Jason would talk about how he would go into his house and it would be empty and how he disappointed he felt, so it makes sense why in almost every scene in the book, he always outside of the house hanging out with people. Jason seems like the kind of person who likes being in company of other people so it really disappointed me how his parents were barely there for him, especially when he was going through one of the toughest moments of his life.

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  4. 羅　理愛　（スミトロ　リア）April 29, 2019 at 12:40 AM

    I remember that one time someone brought the topic of parent-child distance up in class and Mr. Mitchell said it was common during that era: there was the parent realm and then the children realm and neither ever really collided. This is such a difference from the era I'm used to, as there is such a thing as "helicopter parents" and we believe that it's considered inconsiderate if parents never ask their kids how their day at school was. There are many more movements to stop bullying now than there were back then not only because of modern-day media but also because parents are now well aware of what happens in schools -- maybe even because they've endured it themselves. Jason Taylor as a father... I can only imagine how helpful, guiding, and understanding he would be to his own 13 year old kid who suffers from bullying.

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    1. Anya Kaplan-HartnettApril 30, 2019 at 8:08 PM

      This is a good point! I was talking to my dad about his relationships with his parents and he said that nobody really talked to their parents when he was in high school. That's surprising because most of the people I know have fairly close relationships with their parents, and nowadays parents are expected to know at least some basic details about their kids' lives.

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  5. HenryApril 29, 2019 at 6:16 AM

    Sometimes it can be hard to share anything with your parents, even if you have an opportunity to. I think it's good that Jason finds help at all, especially from people as awesome as Madame Crommelynck. Maybe Jason's dad would be as unhelpful with these problems as he was with Jason's stutter.

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  6. Emi L.April 29, 2019 at 3:17 PM

    I was really sad when Madame Crommelynck left so suddenly. While I appreciate Mitchell putting that in as a salute to how life works, I was also sad that Jason was losing such a needed mentor for him at that time. She seemed to teach him more about poetry and life in those sessions than he had learned in the entire year before that.

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