The Hit Man Analysis

In T. Coraghessan Boyle’s short story “The Hit Man”, underlying psychoanalytical themes are present that display an allusion to struggles in human life. The main themes present in this story are dysfunctional behavior, displacement, and an insecure sense of self. Readers see the main character, The Hit Man, go through his entire life struggling with insecurity and other dysfunctional behavior. During this timeline, his dysfunctional behavior represents common struggles and conflicts that occur in common day-to-day life. Relationships with his parents and classmates and also academic struggles seems to be the main contribution to the way this character is represented. Overall, the main core issue the Hit Man seems to be struggling with is

While these bags could be thought of as exemplifying the Hit Man’s dysfunctional behavior, they can also be used as symbols of stages in human life. For example, the first line of the story states “The Hit Man’s early years are complicated by the black bag that he wears over his head”. This line could have multiple interpretations, but it’s clear that that his childhood was troublesome. Within the next few lines it is made clear that the Hit man had trouble speaking, had few friends, was a poor student, and was also abused by his classmates. This paragraph proves that the black bag over his head is a symbol for his troubled childhood and the struggles he faced to turn him into the “Hit Man” that he eventually becomes. Other examples of different hoods include the Hit Man “wearing a black t-shirt, cut off at the shoulders, and a cotton work hood”, at his wedding he is wearing a “silk-lined black-velvet hood”, and at the end of the story his son is found “trying on his first hood”. These hoods represent certain stages in life, such as work, marriage, and for his son, the beginning of

For example, the structure of the story itself is dysfunctional. The story setup is almost like each subtitle is its own story and documentation of that stage in the Hit Man’s life. Instead of adding fluidity to the story by making it an entire, solid work, the author chose to use this odd format to add to the mystery that is the Hit Man. One of the sub-titles in the story is simply called “peas”. Within this section of the story, it is said the Hit Man “does not like peas, they are too difficult to balance on the fork”. Later on in the story, the Hit Man “wastes” a waitress for bringing him a plate of food that contained peas. These statements confirm some of the dysfunctional behavior the Hit Man has as well as another example of displacement. The Hit Man takes something as simple as his dislike of a food and turns it into a murder based on nearly nothing. The Hit Man is likely quick to kill because he believes he has no other way of address his deep core issues of displacement and