A Study Guide for T.C. Boyle's "The Hit Man"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for T.C. Boyle's "The Hit Man", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781535868044

Book preview

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The Hit Man

T. C. Boyle

1980

Introduction

Throughout his long career, author T. C. Boyle, also known as T. Coraghessan Boyle, has been admired by both readers and critics. He is known for his versatility; his quirky, often dark sense of humor; his seemingly boundless vocabulary, and his mastery in both the short-story and novel genres. Boyle's extraordinary skills have earned him a place among the best writers working today.

In 1998, Boyle released a massive collection, T. C. Boyle Stories. The volume, almost seven hundred pages long, gathers all of his previous collections and several formerly unpublished stories. One notable story in this collection is The Hit Man, which first appeared in the North American Review in June 1980 and which has since been included in numerous anthologies.

The Hit Man presents the reader with a series of scenes from the life of the titular character, from his youth in school up until his death. It is a story of contrasts: although the narrative spans a man's entire lifetime, the story is very brief—just a few pages. Also, the Hit Man's secret illegal adventures while working are juxtaposed with his private life, complete with a family and a house in the suburbs. The spare, straightforward prose style that Boyle adopted for the story might seem to the reader to be an unusual choice. Altogether, The Hit Man is a puzzling little tale.

Author Biography

The author was born Thomas John Boyle on December 2, 1948, in Peekskill, New York. When he was seventeen years old, he replaced his middle name with the more interesting Coraghessan, as a way to proclaim his Irish heritage. By the late 1990s, however, he largely stopped using the full name professionally and proceeded to publish using only his initials and surname.

Boyle grew up in Peekskill in a working-class family. His father worked as a bus driver and school custodian, and his mother was a secretary. His parents’ early deaths from alcohol-related health issues indicate that they both drank, but Boyle seems to have had a fairly happy childhood. His parents were loving and encouraging, pushing him to improve himself with