The Parallels Between Benji Cooper and Jason Taylor

    Benji, 15 years old in 1985. Jason, 12 years old in 1982. These two young boys are the same age. But that is only the beginning of their similarities. Although these two are separated by class, race, and location (living completely across the ocean from one another), they relate to one another in spookily noticeable ways throughout the novel.

    The first, most obvious, thing that is a shared similarity between them is their rather aggressive friend group circle. I am of course, in Jason’s case, referring more to before his “friendgroup” turned into vicious bullies. I think a feature of both of these friendgroups is their idea of practicality, how they are not necessarily friends by choice, but instead because options are so limited they are forced to hold onto this friendship. For Jason, it's because he goes to a small school, and needs to stick with the “cool” group to avoid harassment. For Benji, he must decide between hanging with the fellow Sag local boys, or hanging out at home, and obviously he is going to choose the boys. Another similarity in these friendgroups is the constant desperation to evade scrutinization by determining a fellow to be the butt of a joke. Both Benji and Jason’s crew are built upon this constant competition between the boys to assert themselves through this method of dogging on one another in order to gain this feeling of success.

    Both Benji and Jason try to hide their true interests in order to better fit in with the guys around them. For Jason this is more obvious, as it's a major plot point that he must hide his enjoyment of writing, reading, and playing games. For Benji, he does at one point say that he “renounced all things dorky” (Colson 209). However his fitting in more so comes from how he feels a constant need to relate to experiences that aren't his own through mediums of music, and play, along with his friends. He’s constantly striving for a feeling of fitting in, the same way Jason is. Both boys feel this same inferiority due to their genuine interests along with a need to share interests with those around them.

    Additionally, both boys come from problematic home lives, both have mothers that are constantly the subject of their father’s aggression. Both have fathers that aren’t the typical stereotype of alcoholics, but definitely still deal with major substance abuse issues. They both attempt to avoid their home lives due to these issues. They also relate in having a sibling that there is a bit of an alliance with, however there are also still moments in which such alliances are abandoned.

    Finally, the sections that really inspired this blog for me are two specific scenes. The first is on page 208 in which Benji states ““exploring” the property, pretending scrub pines and gnarled bushes were alien territory. Trying to make unknown what was completely known.” This of course is reminiscent of Jason’s goals in the chapter Bridle Path, in which Jason attempts to “explore” a trail on a mysterious, terrifying quest, when it is however just a local walking trail that has been trekked a plenty of times by a variety of people, probably even Jason himself. This imaginative idea gets back at their dorky similarities, wanting to be heroes of quests they themselves create. Also in Bridle Path, Jason is almost attacked and ripped to shreds by Dobermans. A unique experience given the fact that he never is actually harmed, and is instead just threatened and left terrified. Benji had a similar experience a few years before 1985 (perhaps around 1982 when the experience happened to Jason!). This to me is the most fascinating similarity, due to the distinctive experience, and a lack of relatability for a majority of people.

    Overall, there are honestly a lot of other similarities, as well as a notable amount of differences too. However, I want to make a point, that had these two boys known each other, they certainly could have had a lot of shared interests/opinions to converse about. Their similarities show that being a teen boy in the 80s is a rough and sometimes isolating experience, but there is often someone out there that may just understand what it's like to go through that. The experience of an 80s teen boy is something that transcends geographic location, race or class.