Jason the Disturbed

Jason, what a troubled young man, between his father’s influence and the death of his beloved Cheryl he has become traumatized by life. The character of Jason is extremely hard to place. Aside from the obvious unstable, distressed man it is very difficult to understand the character. This is because at different sections in the book we see other aspects of his personality come through. Examples would be with his nephews/sons the love and care he shows them melts your heart. Then with his dog Joyce, he is an extremely responsible and caring pet owner. Towards his family he always seems to pull through and be there for them. He is constantly having little breakthroughs of character which allow us to believe maybe he is getting better, only to have him fall back into his messed up life. I would like to examine the circumstances under which Jason became the person he is. In all honesty, I don’t think the death of Cheryl accounts for as much of his issues as I originally did. If Cheryl would not have died I still think they would have had marital issues, from the beginning Jason was doomed to depression and an unbalanced life, just not as extreme of problems. To begin with I think the majority of the problem was his father Reg. Reg’s vulgar ways taunted Jason all is life. Even before the death of Cheryl there is evidence of extreme anger within Jason’s character. Furthermore, we have the death of Cheryl and the situation of the massacres which in itself is enough to make any perfectly stable person crack. What I think really got to Jason was the overall abandonment by everyone around him. Almost every person he had ever met believed he had played a role in the massacres. This caused him to loose the last remaining trust he had for society. By not trusting anyone, he pushes everyone away and alienates himself from the world.
Beyond Jason’s concerning life and the causes for it are his shocking ways. For the main part I am referring to his secret marriage to Barb and his nephews being his actual children. Though I was suspicious of his close tie to the twins, I thought it was in reference to the baby he and Cheryl had lost. Quite a shocker when we find out what the actual reason was. At the same time, the entire situation made me over-run with the excitement and in a way joy. I believe Jason deeply cares about Barb, not to mention I think the twins give him something to hold on to. They are the reason he has not quite went over the edge. This storyline also brought Barb to the stage and with a BAM I must say. I didn’t see that coming, Kent’s perfect wife running off with his brother, getting married, pregnant and committing murder. This situation brought the story to its feet and I loved it.

Completed by: Brianne Grainger