A Study on Jay's Character

When I was listening to this week's podcast I was intrigued by the statements made about Jay's character. Why did it matter how people perceived Jay? These accounts are retrieved from fifteen years ago so would they really be helpful? I'm not so sure. In this post I am going to explore the validity of a distanced observation that has aged over time and the importance of prejudice in statements.

Koenig in several instances in the episode interviews people who knew Jay back from high school. What these now thirty something people now recall are varying degrees accounting for the multiple facets of Jay's personality. I know that what we learn isn't as surprising as it could have been since we have heard of glimpses of Jay's personality in previous episodes but we still learn a lot from these accounts. I question these accounts however because people's ideas can definitely change over time. For example when I was twelve I used to really want to wear black all the time, it was a normal thought at the time. Now when looking back on it the fact that I wanted to wear nothing but black clothing is rather strange and I can't help but wonder if this same kind of reflection influenced those people who knew Jay. Sure they might have found Jay unique or intimidating at the time but no one at that time was probably thinking about how likely the kid was to kill someone. Just because Jay isn't normal and wears a belt buckle doesn't make him ALL that weird at the most socially tense time of high school, especially in the nineties. I think when these grown ups looked back on the time Jay stood out because of these features that they describe him as while when they were actually experiencing him in high school it wasn't so strange.

When I first heard of the other accounts of Jay I will admit there were some biases on my end. For one thing Jay didn't seem to have the strictest of upbringings, plus he seemed a bit off especially when he tried to knife his older friend. That in itself seemed strange to me but I guess what keeps Jay from becoming a weird knifing social outcast is his confidence and popularity among his fellow students. That and the fact that he has a girlfriend. Although the girlfriend part was weird too because Koenig made her out to be this perfect athletic girl, the good brightness to Jay's shadier side but I still feel like there was something missing there.

In the end I feel like there was a lot of manipulation in this episode. Koenig right out says how she's "playing detective." I think after taking a little closer look at the accounts of Jay's character we are seeing only a few sides of Jay much like we only have seen a few sides of Adnan. Koenig really is playing detective here in Serial because the entire picture is hard to get, not possible to uncover, or not dramatic enough. A key to story is contrast and if everything was out in the open it would just be boring.