Hell of a Book

In Hell of a Book, Soot’s parents teach him how to become invisible. When he slips into that state he is “The Unseen.” The stakes of Soot’s visibility are high; the more he can be seen the more he is at risk of danger. Soot’s invisibility is part of a larger theme in the novel that deals with the implications of being seen. Ultimately, whether the visibility is good or bad has to do with how one is perceived.

The novel offers two different interpretations of visibility: visibility as vulnerability and visibility as healing. In the first interpretation, being seen can make someone vulnerable to judgment and violence from others. This appears in Chapter 3, where Tyrone Greene bullies Soot relentlessly about the darkness of his skin. This treatment makes Soot feel self-conscious and uncomfortable with others seeing him. Soot’s father, William, shares a similar uneasiness with being looked at. Mott writes of him, “Every moment of his life, he felt that he stood out. Too tall. Too skinny. Too Black. All of it swallowed him up some days. There were eyes everywhere, watching him, staring at him” (110).

The danger of visibility also extends to racial discrimination.