As Jason Taylor attempts to navigate the choppy sea that is adolescence, he often struggles to find his place among his peers. Just as young kids like Jason are trying to explore who they are, the cruel social hierarchy created by other students forces Jason, and other young boys, to try to fit into a rigid, outdated mold of stereotypical masculinity that causes Jason distress and conflict in his everyday life. The social expectations of being a boy cripple Jason’s self-esteem and force him to shun parts of himself that others deem unacceptable, like his love of poetry. Most of the conflict that Jason encounters throughout the novel could be avoided if he didn’t feel pressure to fulfill gender stereotypes. Throughout the glimpse at Jason’s life that we get to see, he is always hyper-aware of how his actions will seem to others. Everything from his hobbies down to his word choices, he is constantly wary of how he will be perceived.
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He even says throughout the novel that some things would just be easier if he was a girl. On the night of the dance, when Jason has his first kiss with Holly Deblin, he admires a song that is playing and says “This song... that’s on right now. Sort of hippieish, but it’s beautiful. Words like “beautiful” you can’t use with boys you can with girls” (pg. 275). Jason doesn’t feel like he can even use the word “beautiful” around his male peers for fear of seeming too girly, because real guys don’t use those kinds of words. In Jason’s world, and even our world today, “cool” guys aren’t soft, they only care about things like sports, and seeing how many girls they can kiss. Jason’s cousin Hugo, to whom Jason looks up to and is desperate to impress, embodies many of the qualities of the stereotypical male. Hugo is cool because he smokes cigarettes, is a star on his rowing team, and because “Hugo reckons he’s kissed thirty girls (and not only kissed)” (pg. 275). Hugo’s presence causes Jason to alter many parts of his personality, just in order to impress him. As Hugo and his family are first arriving to Jason’s house, Jason says “I’d already taken down my map of Middle-earth and hidden away my globe and anything else Hugo might think babyish” (pg 43). The things that Jason enjoys and normally displays in his room are now things that he feels like he needs to hide. He is mortified when his mother brings up the fact that he had won a poetry competition in front of Hugo, and Hugo also convinces Jason to try his first cigarette, which Jason doesn’t enjoy, but he pretends he does. Jason tries to transform himself into a completely different person in the presence of Hugo in order to seem more grown up and manly, and is caused to feel shame about aspects of who he is, thanks to society's views of what the ideal young man should be. One of Jason’s biggest secrets throughout the novel is the fact that he writes poetry. He submits his poetry to the parish magazine under the alias Eliot Bolivar, where they are published, a fact that not even his parents know. Jason writes under a pseudonym because he believes if anyone found out he wrote poetry, it would be devastating to his reputation. One
He even says throughout the novel that some things would just be easier if he was a girl. On the night of the dance, when Jason has his first kiss with Holly Deblin, he admires a song that is playing and says “This song... that’s on right now. Sort of hippieish, but it’s beautiful. Words like “beautiful” you can’t use with boys you can with girls” (pg. 275). Jason doesn’t feel like he can even use the word “beautiful” around his male peers for fear of seeming too girly, because real guys don’t use those kinds of words. In Jason’s world, and even our world today, “cool” guys aren’t soft, they only care about things like sports, and seeing how many girls they can kiss. Jason’s cousin Hugo, to whom Jason looks up to and is desperate to impress, embodies many of the qualities of the stereotypical male. Hugo is cool because he smokes cigarettes, is a star on his rowing team, and because “Hugo reckons he’s kissed thirty girls (and not only kissed)” (pg. 275). Hugo’s presence causes Jason to alter many parts of his personality, just in order to impress him. As Hugo and his family are first arriving to Jason’s house, Jason says “I’d already taken down my map of Middle-earth and hidden away my globe and anything else Hugo might think babyish” (pg 43). The things that Jason enjoys and normally displays in his room are now things that he feels like he needs to hide. He is mortified when his mother brings up the fact that he had won a poetry competition in front of Hugo, and Hugo also convinces Jason to try his first cigarette, which Jason doesn’t enjoy, but he pretends he does. Jason tries to transform himself into a completely different person in the presence of Hugo in order to seem more grown up and manly, and is caused to feel shame about aspects of who he is, thanks to society's views of what the ideal young man should be. One of Jason’s biggest secrets throughout the novel is the fact that he writes poetry. He submits his poetry to the parish magazine under the alias Eliot Bolivar, where they are published, a fact that not even his parents know. Jason writes under a pseudonym because he believes if anyone found out he wrote poetry, it would be devastating to his reputation. One