Jasper Jones, by Craig Silvey
About Jasper Jones
This novel by author Craig Silvey is easily one of my favorite Australian YA novels. Engaging, exciting, and plot-driven without sacrificing character development or artful writing, its Printz Honor is well-deserved.
The book starts off with a bang:
Jasper Jones has come into my window.
I don't know why, but he has. Maybe he's in trouble. Maybe he doesn't have anywhere else to go.
Either way, he's just frightened the living shit out of me.
The novel is unusual in many ways; firstly, our protagonist Charles is only 13 years old. Despite this, the content and language in the text are much more suited to high school juniors or seniors. In fact, the novel was originally marketed in Australia to adults rather than teens. Despite this, I believe it would be an incredibly valuable reading experience for older high schoolers.
Set in small-town Australia during the Vietnam War, Jasper Jones centers around our young protagonist as he's suddenly drawn into the terrifying world of Jasper Jones-- town outcast, half-Aboriginal, intermittently itinerant, the cards seem to be stacked against Jasper. When Jasper pulls Charles from bed in the middle of the night, leading him through forests and swamps, Charles is still under Jasper's spell-- the exotic appeal of the outsider. Only when Jasper leads him to their destination does Charles' sheltered life begin to fall away:
I don't turn back. I stay. I follow Jasper Jones.
And I see it.
And everything changes.
The world breaks and spins and shakes.
I'm screaming, but they are muffled screams. I can't breathe in. I feel like I'm underwater. Deaf and drowning. Jasper Jones has a hand pressed over my mouth; another across my shoulder, pulling me in toward him. My hips lurch back, back, back out of here, but my feet are rooted to the clearing. Blessedly, my eyes cloud over with tears and obscure it all until they are blinked away. And it's there before me again. Jasper has me hard. He covers my thin frame easily. It's horrible. Too horrible for words.
It's a girl.
It is a girl and she is in a dirty cream lace nightdress. She is pale. In the silver light I can see she bears scratches down her arms. And her calves. And her face is smudged and bruised and bloody. And she is hanging by the neck from a thick rope tied to the bough of a silver eucalyptus tree. She is still. She is limp. Her feet are bare and turned in. Her long hair is trapped tight under the oose. Her head is to the side, like a piece of biblical art. She looks disappointed and sad. Surrendered.
As Charlie begins to face the reality that Jasper, because of his race, will be blamed for the death of the girl, his picturesque town of Corrigan reveals itself to be an ugly and unforgiving place. Charlie agrees to help Jasper hide the body, both boys knowing that they must find who is responsible for the death of the girl else Jasper be persecuted. Charlie begins to wake up to the ugliness present within Corrigan, and within his own family. His best friend Jeffrey provides an abundance of comic relief in the novel, which is made all the more sickening when Jeffrey and his parents (who are from Vietnam) begin to be tormented by the town.
The book starts off with a bang:
Jasper Jones has come into my window.
I don't know why, but he has. Maybe he's in trouble. Maybe he doesn't have anywhere else to go.
Either way, he's just frightened the living shit out of me.
The novel is unusual in many ways; firstly, our protagonist Charles is only 13 years old. Despite this, the content and language in the text are much more suited to high school juniors or seniors. In fact, the novel was originally marketed in Australia to adults rather than teens. Despite this, I believe it would be an incredibly valuable reading experience for older high schoolers.
Set in small-town Australia during the Vietnam War, Jasper Jones centers around our young protagonist as he's suddenly drawn into the terrifying world of Jasper Jones-- town outcast, half-Aboriginal, intermittently itinerant, the cards seem to be stacked against Jasper. When Jasper pulls Charles from bed in the middle of the night, leading him through forests and swamps, Charles is still under Jasper's spell-- the exotic appeal of the outsider. Only when Jasper leads him to their destination does Charles' sheltered life begin to fall away:
I don't turn back. I stay. I follow Jasper Jones.
And I see it.
And everything changes.
The world breaks and spins and shakes.
I'm screaming, but they are muffled screams. I can't breathe in. I feel like I'm underwater. Deaf and drowning. Jasper Jones has a hand pressed over my mouth; another across my shoulder, pulling me in toward him. My hips lurch back, back, back out of here, but my feet are rooted to the clearing. Blessedly, my eyes cloud over with tears and obscure it all until they are blinked away. And it's there before me again. Jasper has me hard. He covers my thin frame easily. It's horrible. Too horrible for words.
It's a girl.
It is a girl and she is in a dirty cream lace nightdress. She is pale. In the silver light I can see she bears scratches down her arms. And her calves. And her face is smudged and bruised and bloody. And she is hanging by the neck from a thick rope tied to the bough of a silver eucalyptus tree. She is still. She is limp. Her feet are bare and turned in. Her long hair is trapped tight under the oose. Her head is to the side, like a piece of biblical art. She looks disappointed and sad. Surrendered.
As Charlie begins to face the reality that Jasper, because of his race, will be blamed for the death of the girl, his picturesque town of Corrigan reveals itself to be an ugly and unforgiving place. Charlie agrees to help Jasper hide the body, both boys knowing that they must find who is responsible for the death of the girl else Jasper be persecuted. Charlie begins to wake up to the ugliness present within Corrigan, and within his own family. His best friend Jeffrey provides an abundance of comic relief in the novel, which is made all the more sickening when Jeffrey and his parents (who are from Vietnam) begin to be tormented by the town.
How would I teach Jasper Jones?
A few themes present in this novel include:
- Discrimination and Hatred
- Guilt, Undeserved and Deserved
- Resiliency in the face of hatred
- The line between hatred and ignorance
- Lies: White and Black
- Coming of Age/The Disintegration of "Sainted Adulthood"
- Courage in the face of reality
- Obligations to "Family"
What resources would I use to help teach Jasper Jones?
- Charlie's best friend Jeffrey is obsessed with cricket. Charlie frequently supports his friend, listening to games with him and cheering him on in matches. A cricket match ends up becoming quite important in the novel, but for American students with no prior exposure to cricket the sports language could be difficult to follow. I would recommend showing students a short introductory video about cricket to help them conceptualize the sports scenes.
- For students who would like to read more about the setting, Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country is an engaging and humorous travelogue that still manages to discuss serious issues (including issues of race discussed in Jasper Jones).
- For students who would like to read more about the setting, Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country is an engaging and humorous travelogue that still manages to discuss serious issues (including issues of race discussed in Jasper Jones).
Further valuable reading/ areas of study:
The Verdict
Without a doubt, I would jump at the chance to teach this book. This text would make an incredible addition to a junior or senior English curriculum.
I would never go younger than 11th grade when teaching this novel, due to violent content, harsh language (though mostly used humorously by Charlie and Jeffrey), and implied upsetting sexual content.
I would never go younger than 11th grade when teaching this novel, due to violent content, harsh language (though mostly used humorously by Charlie and Jeffrey), and implied upsetting sexual content.