Black Swan Green: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Wilcox makes fun of Jason because he heard Jason went to the movies with his mum in Cheltenham. Jason tries to ignore him, but Wilcox keeps going, saying that Jason probably made out with his own mum in the back. In mathematics class, Jason thinks about how he should’ve just gone to see Chariots of Fire alone, when all of a sudden, he gets caught not paying attention in class. The teacher makes him do a “head-to-head,” which is a race to solve a math problem against another kid. Jason loses and feels ashamed that unpopular boys and even girls feel comfortable making fun of him.

Jason’s usual PE teacher is away with the rugby team, so the student teacher, Mr. McNamara, leads class. He struggles to discipline the class, and when the boys play football, they start fouling each other violently. Wilcox rugby tackles Jason, claiming to Mr. McNamara that he got confused about the sport they were playing. Mr. McNamara orders the misbehaving boys, including Wilcox, Gary Drake, and Darren Croome, to run out to a nearby bridge and back, but the boys just go to the bridge and keep running.

Forty-five minutes later, Wilcox, Gary Drake, and Darren Croome come back smelling like cigarettes. Mr. McNamara gets angry at them, but when he leaves, they just come up with an insulting song to the tune of “John Brown’s Body” about him being gay and get several other students to join in. Mr. McNamara comes back angrily. He asks Jason to give him the names of the people who were singing. Jason doesn’t want to get a reputation for tattling.

Just then the headmaster, Mr. Nixon, comes over to Mr. McNamara’s class, saying he was interrupted on a phone call by the singing. He wants to punish all of the students, even those who didn’t join in the singing. He tells all of them to report to the Old Gym at 12:15 p.m.

Jason goes to lunch, and Moron points out that someone wrote “Maggot” and stuck it on Jason’s back. He tells Jason he heard a rumor that Debby Crombie is pregnant, and since she hasn’t been seen with anyone else, the father could be Tom Yew. Jason is intrigued but eats quickly in order to make it back to the Old Gym by 12:15. After lectures by Mr. Nixon and some of the other teachers, Mr. Nixon tells the students that they have to stay silent until 1 p.m. and do the same every lunch for the rest of the week.

Later, in class, Jason struggles to read from a book as instructed. Gary Drake comes after Jason and imitates his stammer, then acts innocent when the teacher confronts him about it. In music class, Jason gets distracted, so his teacher sends him out on an errand to fetch a whistle (which the teacher uses to manage the end-of-day bus lines). Along the way, he runs into Holly Deblin, a new girl in school. She has noticed how people like Wilcox treat Jason and reassures him that he’s not a “maggot.” Jason continues to the school office where he finds the music teacher’s whistle. He notices a stack of Xeroxed papers with quotes about bullying on them and decides to steal one.

At the end of the day, Jason commiserates with Moron about how awful their day was. Moron invites him over on Saturday, but Jason worries about surviving the rest of the week first. Jason takes the bus to the village green and starts walking home, thinking his awful day is over, but all of a sudden, he hears Wilcox. Wilcox, Gary Drake, Darren Croome, Wayne Nashend, and Ant Little try to get Jason to speak so that they can make fun of him. Jason resists at first but at last says that Wilcox’s breath smells bad. Wilcox gets angry and starts hurting Jason, but Jason doesn’t react. They take his bag and throw it onto the roof of the departing bus, forcing Jason to chase after it.

Jason’s one piece of good luck is that traffic is slow. He reaches the bus and tells the bus driver, Norman Bates, about his problem. Norman helps him get the bag back and shows him a Bowie knife, recommending that he should sneak up on Wilcox and cut his tendons. Jason says that if he does that, he’ll get sent to borstal (a youth detention center), but Norman says the whole world is borstal.