Schooled

Anonymity can be a blessing and a curse, depending on the situation. In the beginning of the novel, Zach Powers craves visibility: “This was my time–eighth grade, captain of the football and soccer teams, Big Man on Campus.” (13) When the response is positive, he wants to be noticed. However, when Zach Powers becomes the most hated man on campus, visibility is the last thing he wants. As he sits across the lunch table from Hugh, a kid that Zach once dedicated his time to tormenting, Zach wants to “disappear.”

Hugh, who has spent the last eight years being harassed by the likes of Zach, craves the kind of anonymity that would offer him relief from the constant barrage of spitballs and wedgies. For Hugh, his visibility is like wearing a permanent bulls-eye. Capricorn’s presence at the school offers Hugh something he has never had before: anonymity. To Hugh this fact is his “birthday, Christmas, and the Fourth of July all wrapped into one” (70).

Only Capricorn seems unaffected by his high visibility. Not even aware that all eyes are on him, he, unlike Hugh (and eventually Zach) is able to avoid the pain of constantly being on the receiving end of negative attention.