The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

David Bateman’s reemergence is a development as unwelcome as it is sudden. Sam, now an adult, has spent a lifetime recovering from the trauma of David’s brutality, but the predator now returns, hardened by military service, and the cycle of abuse continues. David’s character sustains the novel’s ongoing moral irony: A Catholic school should have been loving and virtuous, but it was often hostile and corrupt; the religious authority of Sister Beatrice should have been a role model for young Christians, yet she was hypocritical and uncharitable; and now, the narrative presents the adult David, who is morally bankrupt yet holds an office that, as law enforcement, should entail justice. As a school bully, he operated as if he lived above the rules, and in a cruel twist, he is now the rule enforcer. This scene shows bullying is not limited to children and adolescents and can happen to adults as well. Sam faces a difficult decision: cower to David’s despotic demands and leave Daniela vulnerable to more abuse, or risk his career and potentially his life to help her. The moral dilemma is a far weightier iteration of the quandary Sam faced as a child when he was torn between telling the truth of David’s bullying and keeping it hidden to protect himself from retaliation. As Sam ages, his life’s ethical landscape gains dimension.

In the nonlinear narrative sequence, this flashpoint in the protagonist’s adulthood immediately prefaces the chronicle of another critical moment, this time from his adolescence: his 16th birthday. This is a seminal coming-of-age moment; perched on the cusp of adulthood (or at least what 1970s American culture sees as adulthood), the day marks a psychological threshold for Sam, and the rite of passage finds symbolic expression in the gift of the Ford Falcon. Despite his childhood traumas, by 1971 he has settled into a comfortable teenage existence within the normal ebb and flow of adolescence. Playing basketball and spending time with friends brings him joy, and his parents’ generous gift of the beloved Falcon symbolizes their trust and love. The only part of teenage life he has yet to explore is dating. Mickie has clearly developed romantic feelings for Sam, but due to his fear of ruining their friendship, he does not respond to her overtures.

Mickie’s birthday gift to Sam, the saint’s pendant, is symbolic and hearkens back to Father Brogan’s gift of the card with the Irish blessing (in Part 2, Chapter 14). Christopher is the patron saint of travelers and, according to tradition, offers protection for those on a journey. People who care for Sam see how harsh the world can be to him yet feel powerless to change it, but their offerings of prayers and amulets remind him he is not alone. The gift also symbolically announces that Sam is on a journey—a journey that, so far, the novel has framed largely as a coming-of-age venture. By the end of the novel, the motif of journeying will have accrued a spiritual quality and evolved into the idea of a pilgrimage.

Finally, though the novel leaves it unmentioned, Saint Christopher is also patron saint of athletics, another of Sam’s passions. Basketball is the site of more irony, especially regarding Sam’s ocular albinism. He uses his red eyes to intimidate his opponents, earning him the nickname “Hell”; where his eyes previously left the protagonist at a social disadvantage, they now give him an edge, and a moniker that earlier would have been an insult is now a kind of laurel (if an ambiguous one).