The walls of his room are covered with them. Whenever he goes out, he chooses a mask to fit his mood. The novel as a whole asks much the same question. It adds and subtracts characters almost at will. One mask leads to another, and then another.
Casual phrases take on lives of their own.
Poor poor baby. Before you know it, the book has a new character, Baby Poorpoor. Baby goes his own way, independent of John Anthony. A few chapters later, Baby spins off yet another character, James Madison. James is the love slave of a man he knows only as John Doe.