Black Swan Green

Tom Yew, a member of the Royal Navy, is the closest thing to a hero in all of Black Swan Green. He is idolized by Jason and the boys his age. Tom seems to represent everything the boys respect: He has his pick of any girl he wants, he’s escaped the confines of the village, and he’s fighting for his country. When Jason unwittingly observes Tom Yew and Debby Crombie having sex, the experience unsettles him because it proves that Tom is a human after all. Although Tom is idolized for his bravery, he has a horrible nightmare about being attacked that illustrates he is simply a scared boy. Tom Yew’s death in battle during the Falklands War drives home the point that no one is invincible, not even the town hero.

Collectively, this group is the terror of Black Swan Green, making life for all the unpopular boys miserable. These oppressors target anyone who is weak: Jason for his stammer; Moran for his alcoholic father and the ease of his nickname (Moron); Philip Phelps, who for an unknown reason spends most of the year as a servant to Grant Burch; and more. These bullies represent an unofficial power structure in the village, not because they come from wealthy or influential families (of them all, Jason’s family seems to be wealthiest) but because of their numbers and their unrestrained use of power. It’s nothing for them to throw dirt clods at Jason, mimic his stammer in class, stash a mouse’s head in his pencil case, or throw his backpack on top of the school bus as it drives away. It is not until the end of the book that this position of power is toppled, mainly through Jason’s actions. Ross Wilcox, the ringleader and the cruelest of the group, loses his power in a very literal way, by losing a leg in a motorcycle accident.

Dawn Madden is Jason’s secret love interest for most of the book, although she is mostly attached to his archenemy, Ross Wilcox. Jason describes her as being as fierce as any boy, and he admires her despite (or perhaps because) of her cruel streak. When Jason sees her at her home, this image is somewhat tarnished. Dawn’s stepfather mistreats his family, and it is clear that Dawn lives near the poverty line. She is far more sexually mature than Jason, as seen when she flirts with him as they sit on her stepfather’s tractor, but she also seems bored by the prospect of sex. She dumps Ross for one of his friends on the night of Ross’s accident but returns to him afterward to comfort him. Jason marvels at the length of time he was enthralled by Dawn, but when he sees her at the end of the novel, he realizes he has outgrown his feelings for her. It takes him a long time, but Jason finally realizes that her negative qualities make her quite undesirable.

Madame Crommelynck contacts Jason to talk to him about his poetry (which he writes under the pseudonym Eliot Bolivar). She addresses Jason as if he is an adult and takes an interest in his education—what he knows, and more specifically, what he should know. Jason’s relationship with her is kept secret from even his parents; discussing Madame Crommelynck with them would mean admitting to his secret predilection for poetry.

Although Jason looks through her photo albums and hears stories of her life, Madame Crommelynck is essentially an enigma. Her appearance in his life is as sudden as her disappearance, when she is extradited to Germany over a matter of financial impropriety, the exact details of which are not revealed. Jason is embarrassed to learn that the man he called a butler at her home was in fact her husband. Although their relationship is somewhat limited by this one-sided information, Jason feels her loss acutely. She is perhaps the first person who treats him not as a child but as a person, and more importantly, as a poet. Madame Crommelynck was also a character in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, published in 2004.

Craig Salt, who Jason only meets once, is referenced throughout the novel. As Jason’s father’s boss, he wields immense influence over his employees and, by extension, their families. Jason’s father seems to be completely under his boss’s thumb, as seen by the incident when Craig Salt bumps into Jason, blaming Jason for nearly tripping him, and then undermines his father’s authority with his son by incorrectly identifying the type of Jason’s fossil. In some cases, “Craig Salt” may function as an alibi for the time Jason’s father spends with his mistress. Near the end of the book, Craig Salt fires Jason’s father for a 20-pound discrepancy in financial accounting, despite his tireless years of service to the company. Craig Salt ultimately represents the cruelty of the adult world, the bully in white-collar business.