Elevation: A Novel

Elevation’s protagonist is Scott Carey, a divorced web designer living in Castle Rock, Maine, with his cat. Scott’s interactions with his friends and neighbors portray him as a sympathetic, reasonable, and likable. Scott’s small flaws, like taking pleasure in Bull Neck’s struggle to finish the Turkey Trot, add to his relatability without significantly compromising his moral standing. His physical characteristics—he’s 6’4” and overweight—are an important aspect of his characterization for how they influence the way others see him. He’s constantly underestimated because people judge his abilities based on his age and size. This kind of stereotyping develops the book’s theme of Overcoming Rifts Caused by Prejudice. Scott’s physical attributes also emphasize the paradox of his strange condition, in which he loses weight but the appearance and mass of his body stay the same. The discordance between his large body and light weight supports an interpretation of Weightlessness as Liberation From Human Suffering, rather than merely a biological phenomenon.

Scott is motivated by the looming approach of his death, which he calls “Zero Day” because it’s the day he expects to weigh zero pounds based on his rate of