Homework due 2/20

In Jon’s chapter starting on page 49, where he is talking to Uncle Benjen about joining the Night’s Watch there tends to be this common binary occurrence of phrases between boy and man.  Martin only has the characters come out and say these words directly a few times; however it is something he implies more than it is said.  Another thing that builds on this is the way Martin repeats the age of fourteen over and over again which makes you recognize more and more that fourteen is pretty young and further builds on the idea of Jon being just a boy.  I think Martin includes this to show how Jon is not yet as experienced for the life of The Wall as he thinks.  When the chapter ended it seemed like to most people Jon would not be joining the Night’s Watch just because how the conversation had ended with him running off.  However, I think with the talk between Benjen and Jon having this difference between boy and man it was significant because it kind of led me as a reader to believe that Jon is going to take the necessary steps to become a man.  He is still understanding that there is a fine line between being a man and a boy which I believe Martin was leading his reader to infer that Jon will begin to become more of a man throughout the book while working at The Wall.  There was also sort of a binary conversation about being a bastard versus blood relative and how it was seen as a disgrace.  I think Martin included this to show how The Wall could be significant in people’s lives that were not as honorable as others.