Madame C Helps Jason T

But human beauty falls leaf by leaf. You miss the beginning. One tells one, No, I am tired or The day is bad, that is all. But later, one cannot contradict the mirror. Day by day by day it falls, until this vieille sorcière is all who remains, who uses cosmetician's potions to approximate her birth gift. Oh, people say, 'The old are still beautiful!' They patronize, they flatter, maybe they wish to comfort themselves. But no. Eating the roots of beauty is a...Insatiable, undestructible slug. 

-- Madame Crommelynck (Black Swan Green, 150)

Jason starts visiting Madame Crommelynck during chapter 7, or "Solarium," in Black Swan Green and she provides a new perspective for him. She is brutally honest and frank, but it is clear that she is trying to help Jason. The other people that Jason interacts with are his family and friends and Madame Crommelynck is unlike most of them. The kids at school have a complex set of rules for who can say what and when and half the time they don't understand or mean what they're saying. At home, Jason experiences harsh speech from and between his parents, but their motives seem to be more selfish. They are frank with each other because they want to hurt the other person. Julia calls Jason "thing" and taunts him, but then sugarcoats their parents' fights and tries to soften the blow of their crumbling marriage. Madame Crommelynck is the first person who is straight with Jason and wants to help him. She doesn't baby him like so many of the other people in his life do and she explains things to him. The quote above is just one of many examples of Madame Crommelynck telling Jason how life is; she doesn't water it down as she acknowledges a sad fact of life: we are all going to die someday and it won't necessarily be a walk in the park when we get older. These conversations with Madame Crommelynck are extremely important for Jason's coming of age as he is able to engage in an intellectual conversation and really think about life. She gives him the opportunity to question the world around him and encourages him as he questions what she is saying. It seems like this is the first time that Jason isn't just stumbling into an adult moment and faking it until he makes it. Yes, he sort of stumbled into his arrangement with her, but he could leave or respond differently to her prompts to think harder. Rather, Madame Crommelynck allows Jason to take his coming of age into his own hands a bit, and it is really exciting to see that milestone.