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In the chapter “To Prevent Flare-Ups”, when Benji states, “we were a made for TV family” he clearly means and goes on to explain how his family use the TV as an avoidance mechanism, so that they can spend as little time communicating with each other as possible (Whitehead 207). But it is also interesting to explore the double meaning of this phrase, in which Benji’s family are the ones being broadcasted on TV. Benji admits at the beginning of the chapter that on paper, his family is pretty much perfect just as a family on TV would be. And in his perfect on paper family, Benji’s dad is clearly the ring leader. Benji’s father’s attitude toward having an “audience” (meaning the outside world) is strange, he seems to either enjoy the attention or at least not particularly care if the “audience” discovers the abuse that he dishes out, probably because he views his abuse as justified.  However, appearances do matter to the father in most other situations, which we see as he puts pressure...

The last statement in Black Swan Green comes from Julia who responds to Jason complaining that his world does not feel “alright” at the end of the novel, “that’s because it’s not the end” (Mitchell 300). This idea that endings are beginnings and beginnings are endings is something that Jason contemplates earlier in the day, when he returns to the lake a year after the start of the novel in the chapter “January Man”. This is something that we see Jason coming to terms with at the lake as he realizes that beginnings don’t happen without endings and vice versa. As Jason looks back on all the changes the past year has wrought, he considers his mother and father’s marriage in terms of ending and beginning. He says The world never stops unmaking what the world never stops making, in this case because his mother and father created a family, and then took it apart (290). Earlier he even considers what would have happened if his father had never decided to settle down with his mother, which wo...