Theme Of The Hit Man

Its ironic how in the story ‘The Hit Man”, the main character whose name we do not know, was only hired once, that we know of, to do some killing. Throughout the story we get to visualize who he is through his actions rather than the details of his physical appearance besides the black hood he wears. The story makes many references to the way society views him. This story is structured in a chronological format of critical points in his life. Many events take place in which he ends up wasting someone because they wronged him in some way. We can all infer that T.C. Boyle means kills when he says wastes throughout the story. Why does the hitman kill anyone who does him wrong or that he doesn’t like? He doesn’t believe in giving people second

He kills his father after slapping the cornflakes out of his hands just like his father did to him. While the hit man is in his twenties having fun, his mother is in the hospital dying of cancer. The fact that T.C Boyle puts the line “The priest wears black. So does the hit man.” means something. It means that both life and death or good and bad are both sides of the same coin. Both of them go hand and hand. They’re both messengers of something greater. The hit man’s first job, which we don’t find out till later, was to kill this one guy’s cousin. He then tells us he doesn’t like peas which was a foreshadowing of the waitress’s death. The hit man then attends a talk show which is really him talking to god and his angels. The whole description of the place and how the pediatrician has to deal with all the children (which is us) made it seem to be like god talking to death. The pun at the end, “Tell me - I’ve always wanted to know – what does it feel like to hit someone?” was just to make it funny. Later on when the hit man gave a wino $1800 then killed him meant that the wino used all his money on drugs which killed him. The hit man getting married, having a kid, going to work, and greeting his neighbors is all part of creating the sense of humanity in him. The fire, the 3 headed dog, and getting a gilded scythe is all part of making him seem like the reaper or something of that nature. At the end when he’s