Self-Love
While part of the story underlines familial love, a great emphasis is on the journey of loving oneself by overcoming self-loathing or self-pity. Akin to Soot, the author harbors internalized self-hate in part due to societal expectations and racial prejudice against black people. During the book tour, the narrator comes to terms with his own shortcomings towards learning to accept himself. Moreover, the media trainer stresses that the author should explore stories about love and not grief or death, thereby, term his journey a love story. He tells The Kid, “Maybe the love story here is more reflective, you know? Like maybe Narcissus had spent his whole life hating himself before that one day when he saw his own beauty, his own worth.” Thrown into fame the narrator struggles with his self-worth of which hardens him and eventually learns self-love.
Mental Health
The unnamed author is an unreliable narrator, but also, conscious of his inability to discern reality from imagination. His antics could be a response to the generational trauma that has been transferred among black people in American society. On the other side, Soot is a victim of bullying rendering him self-conscious of his skin color and his safety in the South. After his father’s murder the anxieties that once were mild escalate as he grasps the realities of being black in America. It comments on the collective trauma that the black people harbor from the sense of uncertainty and fear that defines their experience.
Racial Violence
Reflecting on the current social climate the novel focuses on racial violence, in particular, police brutality. The black experience of young black men is a part of the larger plot with Soot and The Kid influencing the author’s mindset. The plot includes a constant broadcast of a black boy killed by law enforcers that could be a single victim or a collection of similar occurrences. The ongoing systemic racism in institutions creates the basis of the story and conflict in the lives of the characters. Soot is made aware of the injustices that lurk in the streets thereby trained to navigate such scenarios. Witnessing police murder his father, the reality about racial violence is as real as they come. It stresses the state of affairs in the country where a big part of the population lives with a constant fear of being mistreated or even killed.
