Madame Crommelynck as a turning point in Jason’s adolescence
My first impression of Jason Taylor was that he was very self conscious, and edited himself so much to others, to a point that no one really knew him (this is also similar to Holden and Esther). Jason really isn’t the “type” that all the other popular kids in his class are; he writes poetry, has nerdy interests, and has a stammer that he uses his extensive vocabulary to hide. Jason’s worst fear is that any of this humiliating information about him is revealed to his class, so he does all he can to hide it and fit in. Jason is so obsessed with the social politics of his grade and is desperate to move up from his current mid-ranked “position” in his class. He recognizes classmates, like Ross Wilcox, who didn’t used to be cool, and is bewildered by how they were able to move up. Jason begins taking any chance he can get to improve his social standing with the other kids, as well as keeping up the act of hiding his stammer and unpopular interests. One example of this is in “Bridle Path”, w...