Micheal Taylor and Craig Salt

At first, when I was reading the chapter "Souvenirs" and I read the part about Jason walking into Craig Salt and the resulting conversation, I was surprised by how upset Jason was. He says he "couldn't speak to Dad...I nearly biffed his hand away and flung my shitty 'trilobite' into the shitty sea" (184). This is the most angry he has been in the entire novel up to tho point, with the exception of the end of the chapter "Rocks." This can be seen in his language: this is just the second time we see Jason swearing in the book, the first time being in that scene at the end of "Rocks" where he repeatedly uses the word bloody. At first, I was taken aback by the amount of anger Jason displayed.

As I thought further, however, it made sense. In a young boy's life, his father is the ultimate authority, the person who knows everything and is in control of everything. Jason's views his dad that way, as can be seen in the first chapter when he asks his dad "If you drown, what happens to your body?" (12). This view of his father is still very much that of a little kid, and this view of his father will be challenged in that scene with Craig Salt.

From very early on and often throughout the book, we can see that Craig Salt is an important factor in Michael Taylor's life. Readers are able to pick up in these encounters that Craig Salt has a higher position than Michael and that Michael sucks up to Craig Salt.On the first page, reference is made to a picture in Michael's office of Michael shaking hands with Craig Salt when he got a job promotion, a position where Craig Salt clearly is is a position of power over Michael.

Craig Salt seems to often be the topic of dinnertime conversation at the Taylor household. When Michael is telling his family about Danny Lawlor, the most way he can prove his point about Danny is that Danny impressed Craig Salt. "Craig Salt dropped by while I was there to instill some God-fearing discipline into the troops, but Danny had him eating out of his hand in five minutes flat" (33). Craig Salt is evidently hard to please, or at least hard for Michael to please. Michael follows this quote with another example of how much power Craig Salt holds over him. "When Craig Salt gives me nationwide sales next year, I'm fast-tracking Danny Lawlor" (33). Craig Salt is dragged by Michael into other dinnertime conversations as an authority. "The golf course...is where deals get cut. Including key promotions. I may not like it, you may not like it, but there it is. And Craig Salt does not play his golf on public links" (99).

As a reader, I am picking up on the fact that Michael hangs on Craig Salt's every word and is desperate to impress him. Jason, however, either doesn't notice these things, or is willfully ignoring them. He still views his Dad as the ultimate, in-control authority and he is really bothered when his Dad does not conform to this attitude. When Michael and Uncle Brian (the other man Michael is always trying to impress) get into an argument and Uncle Brian gives him a condescending look, Jason says "that look got on my wick" (45). Jason is not able to ignore this dynamic between his Dad and Craig Salt after the scene in  Lyme Regis.

At first during that business trip when Michael is going out of his way to please Craig Salt, Jason doesn't mind too much. He finds out his Dad will be late because the seminar was going long, but he has Danny Lawlor to keep him company. Danny even makes fun of how subservient Michael (and presumably other Greenland employees) are to Craig Salt when he says that "the Emporer's dropped by unannounced" (173). Jason really starts to get upset with his Dad when Michael says he will be home for Chariots of Fire, but only stops by way late than he said he would so he could tell Jason that Craig Salt is taking him out to a pub. Then Michael staggers home drunk real late, cursing Craig Salt as he walks in.

As bad as that was, things seem idyllic the next day. Michael has gotten up early to go kite-flying, and he is once more the all-knowing, in-control Dad Jason wants him to be. He can do all kinds of cool stunts with the kites and knows everything there is to know about fossils.

Minutes later, they encounter Craig Salt, and Jason can't stand how subservient his Dad is. Jason realizes Craig Salt is a big bully, but his Dad refuses to stand up to him. "Dad wasn't meeting my eyes. 'If Mr. Salt's sure, Jason--'"(183). Michael not only refuses to stand up to him, he is actively sucking up to Craig Salt. "'Right first time, Craig. That's Jason, my youngest.'" "Dad just had this weedy smile." "'Only a forty-footer' Dad said it like the Man of the Sea he isn't" (184).

Everything Jason believed about his Dad is shattered here. Michael doesn't seem as all-knowing and is certainly not in control. Jason even outright states it. "The Dad out here and the Dad in the fossil shop just weren't the same person." In this light, it makes a lot more sense to me why Jason is so upset at the end of the scene. This could be scene as a critical moment in coming of age, the moment realize that your Mom and Dad are not fully in control of something, and may not know everything after all. It will be interesting to see how Jason's view of his Dad  changes over the last chapters of the book.