A moment for Julias coming of age

 Honestly, I don’t mind Jason Taylor. But I think even Jason Taylor himself likes Julia more. She’s smart, argumentative, confrontational, wise, independent, empathetic, fun, and confident. She’s the quintessential older sister in my opinion, although I may be biased as an older sister myself. I felt myself focusing on her role in Jason Taylor’s coming of age and I really related to the in-class discussion on how their relationship changes over the course of the novel. In this blog post, I want to take a moment to write a more in-depth reflection on their relationship development and show that not only is their increasing closeness a sign of coming of age for Jason, but it is also a sort of coming of age for Julia. 

Julia is always "awesome,” but when she supports Jason at the beginning of the novel, it's usually undercut by other actions that emphasize their “unequal” dynamic. For example, when she stands up for Jason in the beginning of the novel by saying that she also went into their dad's office when their dad was yelling/getting mad at Jason for doing so, she still calls him “Thing” at this point and rolled her eyes at him earlier that chapter (she even says she has “one too many” brothers right before Michael’s confrontation of Jason) (page 14 in my pdf). Additionally, her indiscriminate ability to disagree with others is proof that her motives are probably not to stand up for Jason because he is her brother, but because of her strong sense of morality and desire to correct others when they make a mistake. In that chapter, she also corrects their dad for saying the Titanic sank because of a radar failure when radar wasn’t even an invention at that time (page 23). Thus, it's clear her standing up for him at the beginning of the novel isn’t motivated by sibling solidarity or empathy but by her strong sense of justice. 

Another example of this is when she stands up for Jason at the dinner table when Alex, their cousin, makes fun of him for winning a poetry competition and getting his poem in the newspaper:

“Alex dug up the poetry prize again. ‘At least tell us what your poem was about, Jason. The blossoms of spring? Or was it a love poem?’

‘Can’t see you getting much out of it, Alex,’ said Julia. ‘Jason’s work lacks the subtlety and maturity of the Scorpions.’

Hugo spluttered to niggle Alex. And to tell me whose side he was on. I could’ve kissed Julia out of sheer gratitude. Almost.” (page 47 in my pdf)

While this was certainly really nice of her, it's not proof that she feels close to Jason, since she also puts Uncle Brian in his place when he uses a Japanese slur. She does a similar thing to Michael when she brings up the concept of a "Pyrrhic victory” on page 116 in my PDF, another instance that has nothing to do with Jason.

In any case, over the course of a year, especially after Julia goes to college, their relationship begins to shift. Whereas at the beginning of the book, Jason eavesdrops on Julia's conversation with her boyfriend, and Julia says something along the lines of, "You weren’t eavesdropping on me, right?” (page 33 in my PDF), by the end of the novel, they are talking openly about their relationships. When she calls him (a growth in and of itself!), she tells him about her new boyfriend and asks genuinely about the disco and if he's going with someone (page 274 in my pdf). It's a very sweet, older sister olive branch to inquire about the younger sibling's life and show a genuine interest in their success and joy. It's these sweet and caring actions towards Jason that show her coming-of-age into someone more open and kind. I think becoming more independent and getting a break from him by being at college definitely helped. While she was super duper awesome to begin with, now she's more capable of empathizing with people who are very different than her (more shy, less brave, less confrontational), such as Jason, and that shows real growth. While Jason himself has also grown, she is showing a lot of maturity by calling him and beginning a closer and more “equal” sibling relationship. 

pdf I used: Black Swan Green  

Commentaires

  1. Mitchell11 mai 2026 à 10:18

    I would love to read an entire novel focused on Julia as a character--her version of BSG detailing her final year in the village, before she goes off to college. It's cool that we can trace a significant coming-of-age arc for HER through her limited appearances in the novel, and it's significant that we gauge her process of maturity in part through her role as a mentor and role model for Jason. For reasons that are hard to explain, I definitely think that her distance once she goes to Edinburgh has something to do with it--Jason is more comfortable admitting stuff like having crushes on girls over the phone, and we see them becoming more "confidants" of each other. These developments also have a lot to do with the breakup of the marriage, too, of course--as we see them first becoming "allies" in "Rocks."

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