Black Swan Green: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Jason wakes up in his house alone because his mum and Julia are in London, and his dad is away at a conference. His mum left him a note and his own key to the door. It’s a nice day, and Jason sees some clouds that intrigue him, so he decides to go out and follow them. He runs into Mr. Castle near the bridlepath (horse trail). Mr. Castle asks Jason his age and seems amazed and how quickly time is passing. Jason goes on to the path and decides to try to follow it to the end, since none of the other boys like Pete Redmarley or Nick Yew can agree where that is.

Jason continues down the bridlepath and all of a sudden comes to a fence where wild-sounding dogs start barking at him from behind it. A man appears and tells the dogs to quiet, but he gets mad at Jason, accusing him of goading the dogs. The man tells Jason to leave, and Jason agrees to go. But as he’s leaving, the man opens a gate and shouts for the dogs to go get Jason. Jason runs furiously, eventually falling and curling up into a ball, but apparently by then, the dogs and man have lost interest in him.

Jason goes farther down the bridlepath. He passes big fields full of lambs and ewes, eventually reaching a railway embankment where he finds Grant Burch, Grant’s “servant” Philip Phelps, Moron, Squelch, and some others. They ask if Jason has come to see the fight—Grant will be fighting a boy named Ross Wilcox who dropped a cigarette in Grant’s drink at the arcade. Jason thinks that Wilcox and his gang have a grudge with Jason, so he’s glad that Grant will be fighting him. Wilcox hasn’t shown up yet, and Grant plans to wait a little longer before going to track him down if he tries to skip out.

Grant offers Jason a cigarette, and Jason feels like he has to accept. He tries to smoke like Hugo taught him. While fights at school are often fun to Jason, this one feels more ominous. Wilcox arrives, and Grant and Wilcox get started, looking like they’re really hurting each other. While struggling together, they both go over the nearby embankment. The other boys run over to look, and Grant seems to have broken his wrist. Grant tries to call it a tie, but Wilcox claims victory and earns a reputation as the “hardest” kid in his year.

Jason finds out from Moron that the man with the dogs is called Badger, and that rumor has it a local kid who went missing was actually fed to his dogs. Moron asks Jason where he was heading, and Jason says just for a walk. They continue walking through the fields. Moron brags about how wild his father gets on alcohol, and Jason feels almost embarrassed to admit that his dad doesn’t get that drunk.

Jason falls asleep on the roof of a barn, and when he wakes up, Moron is gone. Loud crows are swarming around him. Jason continues on the bridlepath. As he’s going, he runs into Dawn Madden on a tractor. She asks what he’s doing so far up the bridlepath. He asks her the same, and she says she lives in the farmhouse. She explains that her mother remarried and she moved away from her old house by the pub. Dawn is making a bow and arrow with a knife. When Jason asks why, she says to hunt and kill boys.

Dawn offers Jason a Danish, which she forces him to eat off the tip of one of her arrows. Jason notices that she’s not wearing a bra as she offers him the Danish. Afterwards, she accuses him of stealing her “cherry.” She demands that he pay for what he’s done. Jason isn’t sure what he has to pay her, so he offers some old Polo Fruits. Dawn isn’t satisfied and warns Jason that her new stepfather keeps a shotgun in the kitchen.

Jason tries to make sense of the situation. He likes Dawn and figures she wouldn’t have given the Danish to just anyone. He’s only seen diagrams of sex in textbooks and has never even kissed anyone. He climbs up a tree and carves “JT + DM” into the bark with a knife that Dawn lent him.

While Jason is still in the tree, Tom Yew (elder brother of Nick Yew) walks by with Debby Crombie. Jason misses the chance to reveal that he’s there, and they spread out a blanket and start kissing underneath him. Debby wishes Tom a safe tour of duty in the Royal Navy. They get undressed, and Debby starts stroking Tom’s penis. They have sex while Jason watches, then fall asleep together.

Jason is starting to get hungry and tired, as well as feeling ashamed. Tom wakes up screaming, and Debby tries to reassure him it was just a nightmare. She says they should get back to the village before anyone sees them. Jason stays in the tree for a little while before eventually getting down and continuing on the bridlepath. Moron startles Jason by pretending to be a buried corpse and jumping up.

Moron mentions also seeing Dawn on a tractor and having a similar exchange with her over a Danish. Jason starts telling Moron about Tom and Debby, but he can predict how the gossip would spread, so he decides instead to lie and say he just saw them kissing. Jason and Moron continue down the bridlepath until, at last, they reach the mansion. A woman in a nurse’s outfit named Rosemary comes to the door and starts speaking nonsense to the boys. Another nurse comes out and scolds Rosemary for stealing a uniform. Rosemary shouts out so loudly that it seems to echo through the whole area.