What are Masks and Veils

Veils, masks, and other forms of facial concealment appear throughout the narrative as symbols of safety, comfort, and secrets - sometimes, all three at once. The sleep mask worn by Jacob's mother represents the comfort of her presence: the loss of the mask represents his suffering at her disappearance. The veils worn by two of the saints who visit Jacob (Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret) represent the initially hidden nature of their identities, and of the comfort they offer him: when he opens himself, in vulnerability, to that comfort, the veils are removed. The symbolic value of all these literal veils and carries through into references, made throughout the narrative, to non-physical masks of personality and identity that Jacob wears to conceal his sexual orientation and his sexual tastes, as well as how he sees his ethnicity as putting a "veil" over people seeing him as a person.