Soot in People Like Us: Character Analysis

Overview: A Grieving Father Who Refuses to Let Go

Soot is the narrator and protagonist of People Like Us, a forty-four-year-old Black author from rural North Carolina who has built a career speaking about America through the lens of his Black skin, his fear of police, and his loss. The novel opens with him arriving in Minnesota to address a college community after a shooting, and it quickly becomes clear that his public role as a grief counselor masks a private obsession: he believes he can travel through time to revisit moments with his deceased daughter, Mia. Whether this ability is real, a delusion, or a metaphor for memory is left deliberately ambiguous, but it drives every choice he makes. Soot is a man caught between the desire to fix the past and the impossibility of doing so, and his story is a meditation on how grief can both anchor and consume a person.

Plot Role: The Reluctant Time Traveler

Soot's plot role is twofold. He is the first-person narrator who guides readers through a non-linear story that jumps between his present-day life, his past with his ex-wife Tasha and daughter Mia, and his surreal European journey. He is also the emotional center: every other character—Tasha, Dylan, Kelly, Remus, Frenchie—exists in relation to his grief and his attempts to escape it. The novel's structure mirrors his mental state, as he relives key moments (Mia's death, the school drills, the Toronto riverbank) and encounters figures who challenge his worldview. His time travel is not a superpower but a coping mechanism, and the plot unfolds as he tries to find a version of the past he can live with.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Soot's primary motivation is to save his daughter, or at least to understand her death. He repeatedly returns to the field where she was shot, keeping his distance from the exact spot, and he relives the moment he found her body. His actions reveal a man who is simultaneously compassionate and self-destructive. He helps grieving strangers—like the driver in Minnesota who recalls Soot's assistance after the Mississippi shootings—and he speaks to grief with a rehearsed optimism, telling a man, It all comes out okay, as if he can guarantee it. Yet he also carries a concealed gun, buys a Colt 1911, and contemplates using it, showing a deep-seated fear and a willingness to meet violence with violence. He is stubborn, refusing to leave his ancestral land despite Tasha's pleas, and he is deeply introspective, often questioning whether his daughter's death was his fault. His humor—often dark and self-deprecating—serves as a shield, but it never fully hides his despair.

Chronological Arc: From Denial to a Fragile Acceptance

Soot's arc is not linear but cyclical, mirroring his time-traveling mind. The novel opens in the present (Minnesota, winter) and then backtracks to explain his career, his encounter with Remus, and his trip to Europe. Key beats include:

The Minnesota grief gathering (Chapter 5): Soot attends a support group after student deaths, where he confronts a hostile man named David. He shares his own story of losing Mia, and the two trade a phrase back and forth until David breaks down. This shows Soot's ability to connect through shared pain.
The Toronto visit (Chapter 3): He tells Tasha about his time travel, but she dismisses it as memory. She warns him to sell everything and leave before it destroys him. He leaves, rejecting her advice and any chance of reconciliation.
The European offer (Chapters 8–11): Frenchie, a French billionaire, offers Soot a trust fund to live in Europe and record memories of the old America, never returning to the U.S. Soot appears to accept, but the decision is complicated by his growing bond with Dylan, a young man who suffers dissociative episodes.
The stabbing and recovery (Chapters 14–16): Remus stabs Soot in an Italian bathroom. He survives and later reunites with Kelly, an undertaker who becomes his lover.
The final tragedy (Chapter 32): Remus returns to kill Soot, but the gun discharges and kills Dylan instead. Soot flees, and the gun hangs suspended in midair over the Seine—a surreal image that suggests his inability to let go of violence or guilt.
The closing scenes (Chapters 31 and 33): Soot has a vision of Mia as a sixteen-year-old in the dress she died in. She tells him he cannot fix the world or time, and that people like them feel too much and get swallowed up. He also recalls nearly killing himself at fourteen and meeting a suicidal teenage girl in Paris, to whom he offers a story about family and a gun.

By the end, Soot has not found a solution. He has accepted Frenchie's offer to stay in Europe, but the novel ends with him on a bridge, having let the gun go—though it refuses to fall. This suggests a tentative step toward release, but not resolution.

Relationships: The People Who Shape Him

Mia (daughter): The center of Soot's grief. She is bright, skipping two grades, and dreams of attending college. Her death by gunshot is the wound that drives everything. Soot's time travel is an attempt to be with her again, and his visions of her are both comforting and devastating.
Tasha (ex-wife): A teacher who shares Soot's grief but handles it differently. She wants to move away, to protect their surviving family, and she sees Soot's obsession as destructive. Their relationship is marked by love and frustration; they reconcile briefly in Toronto but ultimately cannot save each other.
Dylan (The Kid): A young man Soot knew as a child (only he could see him) who reappears as an adult in Europe. Dylan is a fellow outsider, born in Baltimore but raised in Europe, and he suffers from dissociative episodes that transport him back to a school shooting. Soot becomes a mentor and protector, but his failure to save Dylan—who dies from a stray bullet—mirrors his failure to save Mia.
Kelly: An undertaker who becomes Soot's lover. She is pragmatic and grounded, and she helps him confront his fear of guns by firing one herself. Their relationship offers Soot a chance at connection, but it is overshadowed by his grief.
Remus: A mysterious, scarred man who first threatens to kill Soot and later becomes a reluctant guide. He is a symbol of violence and inevitability, and his final act—accidentally killing Dylan—forces Soot to confront the consequences of his own choices.
Frenchie: A wealthy benefactor who offers Soot an escape from America. He represents the allure of leaving one's problems behind, but his offer is ultimately hollow, as Soot cannot escape his memories.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Carrying a gun: Soot buys a Colt 1911 and carries it throughout Europe. This decision reflects his fear and his belief that violence is a solution. It leads to Dylan's death when the gun discharges during a struggle with Remus.
Refusing to leave North Carolina: Soot insists on staying on his ancestral land, even after Mia's death. This decision isolates him from Tasha and prevents him from moving forward. It also ties him to his heritage, as he sees the land as a legacy he must preserve.
Accepting Frenchie's offer: Soot agrees to stay in Europe, believing he cannot return home. This decision is a form of surrender, but it also allows him to continue writing and to be near Dylan and Kelly. The consequence is that he abandons his land and his past, though he cannot escape either.
Helping Vivian: In Toronto, Soot tries to prevent Mia from approaching a suicidal woman, but Mia insists on helping her. This act of kindness saves Vivian's life, but Soot later wonders if it planted the idea of suicide in Mia's mind. The consequence is ambiguous, but it shows Soot's guilt and his tendency to blame himself for events beyond his control.

Themes and Symbol Connections

Soot embodies the novel's central themes. His time travel is a literalization of grief and the impossibility of changing the past: he can revisit moments but never alter them. His career as a successful Black author highlights racial identity and the illusion of safety through success, as he discovers that fame does not protect him from violence or loss. The recurring presence of guns—from the school drills to his own pistol—connects to the normalization of gun violence, which Soot both critiques and participates in. His attachment to his land and his refusal to leave speak to the search for home and belonging, while his writing and storytelling—whether signing books as other authors or telling Mia's story—reflect storytelling as survival. The black peacock that appears in the field where Mia dies is a symbol of death and the inescapable future, and the suspended gun over the Seine suggests Soot's inability to let go of violence.

Questions and Answers

Why does Soot believe he can travel through time?

Soot tells Tasha that he has always been able to revisit any moment of his life, but she dismisses it as memory. The novel leaves it ambiguous whether this is a supernatural ability, a delusion, or a metaphor for how grief forces us to relive the past. What is clear is that Soot uses this belief to cope with Mia's death, returning to moments when she was alive.

What is the significance of the black peacock?

The peacock appears in the field where Mia will die, and Soot hears a voice saying she will die there. It functions as an omen of death and a symbol of the inevitability of loss. Soot sees it again in Paris, suggesting that death follows him wherever he goes.

Why does Soot refuse to leave North Carolina?

Soot feels anchored to the land his ancestors farmed after receiving freedom papers. He has bought back nearly ten acres to preserve his family's legacy. He believes that leaving would abandon his parents' graves and erase the memory of his family. This refusal is both a source of strength and a trap, as it prevents him from moving forward.

How does Soot's relationship with Dylan evolve?

Soot first knew Dylan as a child only he could see. When they reunite in Europe, Dylan is a young man who acts as a stranger. Over time, Soot becomes a mentor and protector, especially after Dylan's dissociative episodes. Dylan's death—caused by Soot's gun—deepens Soot's guilt and reinforces his failure to save those he loves.

What does Soot's decision to accept Frenchie's offer reveal about him?

Accepting the offer to live in Europe and never return to America shows Soot's exhaustion and his willingness to give up on his homeland. It reveals that he has lost hope in the possibility of change and that he is willing to trade his past for a comfortable exile. However, the decision is also a form of self-preservation, as he cannot bear to remain in a place filled with memories of Mia.

For a deeper look at how the novel resolves Soot's journey, see the ending explained page, or explore common reader questions in the questions and answers section.