The Prologue and first chapter largely contain exposition, establishing the novella’s premise so that there is room for more philosophical rumination in the book’s later sections. As a character, Xandern serves a primarily expository purpose, as he quite blatantly explains what is happening to the recently deceased souls in his office, telling them, “Zoroastrianism? Oh, there’s never been but a few hundred thousand of them at any one time, mostly located in Iran and India, but that’s it. The one true faith. If you’re not a Zoroastrian, I’m afraid you are bound for Hell” (8). Besides orienting readers who may be unfamiliar with Zoroastrianism, this passage emphasizes the religion’s relatively small size, which heightens the absurdity of the characters’ predicament (as the overwhelming majority of the world’s population is bound for Hell). Xandern also provides the key information that Soren’s time in Hell will be temporary and that the experience is supposed to teach him something. Soren will go on to question these points over the course of the novella, but their very establishment is what allows him to question them, proving essential to the story’s thematic exploration of Crises of Belief in the Afterlife.

In addition to providing necessary exposition, Xandern is the most comedic figure in the book, giving the Prologue a more darkly humorous tone than any other chapter. His nonchalance in response to the souls’ utter terror, as well as the complete mundanity of the office setting, are both humorous twists on what might be expected to be an entirely dismal scene. He reveals, for example, that the window in his office with a view of people being tortured is “all just make-believe. We keep the office windows showing that scene just to get the new arrivals to take things seriously. Those are all actors. They get off in about a half hour. So…anyway, we’d better push on” (9), providing levity to a very dark moment. This highly bureaucratic vision of how Hell functions echoes the mythologies of several world cultures, including the traditional Chinese realm of the dead, Diyu, which is sometimes presented as a series of legal courts presided over by judges. It does not, however, bear any resemblance to Zoroastrian descriptions of Hell.

Another key piece of exposition in these introductory chapters is the sign explaining all the rules of the library. Several of the rules are comedically mundane, calling to mind the rules of a real-life library or hotel. For example, the third rule is “Please leave towels on the floor if you wish them to be cleaned. Hang up those you wish to use again” (18). Other rules, however, are highly enigmatic, reminding the reader of the surreal setting. The final rule is the most mysterious of all: “Lastly, you are here to learn something. Don’t try to figure out what it is. This can be frustrating and unproductive” (18). Neither Soren nor the reader is ever provided with a definitive answer regarding what lesson the library is supposed to teach, so this rule is entirely open to interpretation by all. As a list of rules handed down by a divinity, this sign calls to mind dictates like the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. However, unlike the Ten Commandments, which are unyielding standards of moral behavior, these rules are rife with ambiguity. Even clear directives, such as the instruction to find the book that contains one’s life story, are nonsensical in that they have no obvious rationale: It is unclear why completing that particular task would redeem a soul sent to Hell for adhering to the “wrong” religion. As a result, this introduction to the library makes it clear that Peck’s vision of Hell is not nearly as morally clear-cut as traditional Abrahamic depictions of the afterlife.

As these chapters indicate, Peck’s construction of Hell is simultaneously rooted in preexisting conceptions of Hell and highly subversive. This mix of convention and unconventionality has the effect of disorienting readers alongside the characters in the story, inviting them to empathize with the profound confusion with which Soren responds to his circumstances. Such empathetic feedback between character and reader highlights Soren’s humanity in the face of an entirely inhuman situation, laying the groundwork for him to eventually lose touch with that humanity after years of being stuck in the library.

Peck’s Hell also draws inspiration from a secular source: the Borges story that the novella itself alludes to, which imagines the universe as a vast, if not infinite, library. Like the novella, “The Library of Babel” explores various existential themes, including Searching for Meaning in Randomness; Borges describes various sects arising in response to the promise and frustration the library offers, and the story’s narrator maintains a spiritual faith in the library’s ultimate order. Peck, however, personalizes this premise by tying it to the fate of a single character. For example, where “The Library of Babel” describes humanity’s search for a book that will render all the other books in the library comprehensible, Soren must find a record of his own life—an apparently more modest goal on which his redemption nevertheless hinges. Moreso than Borges’s story, the novella thus centers the dissonance between human experience, which is finite and subjective, and conceptions of eternity, infinity, and the divine.