Jason, Personas, and the Hall of Mirrors Scene

During the chapter “Goose Fair” Jason wanders into the hall mirrors and sees multiple reflections of himself distorted by the mirrors. Throughout the novel, Jason struggles with his alternate personas Unborn Twin and Maggot. Much of Black Swan Green, Jason is worried about his identity and how he is perceived by others. He’s constantly self editing himself to fit in with the cool kids at school whether that be hiding his poetry or hiding his stammer. As such, the scene in the hall of mirror is important to Jason’s development because it addresses the issue of Jason’s personas.

I think it’s important that Jason is alone in the hall mirrors. Since Jason’s alone he isn’t self-editing himself to fit in. The Jason alone in the hall of mirrors is the true Jason. One of the insights Jason gets from his reflections is that a person can’t truly change into someone else. One of Jason’s reflections notes that “You can only change superficial features. An Inside-You must stay unaltered to change the Outside-You.” (249). As such, it’s impossible to change yourself. You can only change how others perceive you. However even if you make a superficial change and build an Outside-You, you’re true self will still exist and that true self will be in conflict with the persona you’ve built. Just like a mirror, you can curve and bend the glass to get the reflection you want but that won’t change how you look in reality. Jason can act like one of the members of Spooks, can act like he doesn’t have a stammer, that he isn’t an artist, but, that in the end, is just an act that doesn’t fix any of Jason’s problems. And now, Jason needs to be worried about maintaining his personas and lives in fear that he’ll be caught and someone will see his true self which seems like a pretty unhealthy way to live.

The next reflection Jason sees is Maggot. Maggot says that the kids at school pick on Jason because he doesn’t blend in and that popularity “is about following weather forecasts” (249). However, if popularity is like following weather forecasts that implies that the weather and what’s popular changes. Blindly following what’s popular is pointless since what and who’s popular could change the next day.

The Fourth Reflection is upside down Jason who suggests that Jason make a “One-You” that matches his inner self instead of trying to win people’s approval for his outer-self. Upside down Jason says that Jason is weak because he’s constantly trying to win other people’s approval. We can see that Jason’s desire to be cool makes him a target to Wilcox and his gang. In comparison, it’s less satisfying for Wilcox to bully Dean who doesn’t care about getting approval. As such, Jason learns that he shouldn’t try to self edit himself. Rather, Jason should just show the world his true self and not worry about how others will perceive.