Hell1 is reminiscent of Inferno2, but in many ways different.

Both stories have: a central

character (who is also the narrator) that travels through hell, sin specific torments, and

inhabitants that are socially significant for the time in which the book was written. The two

novels are most clearly divided by the situation of the narrator and the organization of hell.

Hatcher is one of the damned in Hell, where as in Inferno Dante is an outside observer. Both

have a specific function that results in the reader being shown the nature of hell; Dante must

travel through hell and Hatcher is Satan’s anchorman for the daily news. Butler’s Hell is chaotic

and confusing. In it most of the damned are free to travel about (there is one great city in which

they can do so, but typically they do not go far because it is difficult and dangerous to do so), and

are seemingly randomly tortured for each of their many sins. Inferno, on the other hand, is

highly organized; in it Dante has strictly confined each sinner to their specific circled based on

their most heinous sin.

Dante gives the reader a significant amount of intellectual material to consider. Butler,

though, is much better at engaging the reader on an emotional level than Dante. Butler begins

his book by making the reader laugh, and weaves a narrative in which the reader connects to the

main character, Hatcher. In Hell the souls are tormented psychologically and physically and part

of how this is conveyed is through Butler’s manipulation of the reader. In Inferno the damned are

primarily subjected to physical torments, and the reader not given much opportunity to pity them.

Dante’s logical layout and constant assessment of the situation of the damned keep the reader

apart from him. The reader may be disgusted, or filled with righteous indignation, but they do

not find themselves sympathetic to or concerned for Dante or the damned. The torture of the

1 Robert Olen Butler, Hell, (New York: Grove Press, 2009)

2 Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno, tans. John Ciardi. (New York: The Modern Library, 1996)
 Anne Nies / English 113 / Final Paper: Hell vs. Inferno / December 10, 2009

damned is just and reasonable. Dante dehumanizes them by rationalizing their situation. There is

no question in Inferno of whether the damned are being justly punished. Dante’s souls, although

in pain at least have a reason for their torture and can find comfort in the justice of their

punishment. Butler’s souls have no solace, they are not given reasons and there is no clear

rational, they are left to despair.

Although Dante is disturbed by what he sees, hears, and smells in hell, he has the

constant assurance that he will not be subjected to any of the torments and from his first step into

hell he is on his way out. You don’t feel bad for Dante, and you don’t cheer him on. Reading the

Inferno is a bit like being on a Disney boat ride (i.e. “It’s a Small World” or “Pirates of the

Caribbean”) you are just watching. Hatcher, as one of the damned, has no consolation. He begins

to believe though there is a way out of hell, and that he will be smart enough to get out. Butler

uses Hatcher’s first words of the book to engage the reader. “Good evening, good evening, good

evening, good evening, poopy butt, poopy butt, poopy butt”3. And you laugh at him, not with

him, not because he’s funny, but because humans laugh at each others humiliation. As the news

cast wears on it gets worse for him, you move from laughing to feeling bad as you realize how

miserable he actually is. Then when you start to loose any hope for him, you are introduced to

Hatchers resilient nature.

“Commercial!” Beelzebub booms in Hatcher’s earpiece.

“Now!”

Hatcher does not flinch. In his gravest evening tone he

says, “But first these messages,” and he waits and he watches his

3 Butler 1

2
 Anne Nies / English 113 / Final Paper: Hell vs. Inferno / December 10, 2009

own face waiting and waiting on the screens, going out like this

into every corner of Hell, and just as he has become accustomed to

the pain of Beelzebub’s shouting in his ear, he has come to wait out

this inevitable delay of the cutaway with his lips set in a thin,

knowing smile, his eyes steady. I’m learning, Hatcher thinks. I can

control this. Because it’s trivial. Because it just gives me false

hopes.4

At this point the reader is on Hatcher’s side, mostly because of the guilt they feel over

having laughed at him two pages ago. Now that the reader is invested, Butler is able to leave his

impression of hell etched into those who read it. Traveling with Dante the reader is not

encouraged to empathize with him. Instead, the purpose of his writing is clearly to show the

reader Dante’s version of hell. Throughout the book although he is on a journey, he does not

face any obstacles that are difficult to overcome nor does he seem to develop significantly as a

character. The reader is given no genuine reason to care about or even to like Dante.

For Butler, hell clearly is a combination of lack of knowledge and false knowledge. The

lines between reality and fantasy blur throughout the novel, but it not clearly expressed to the

reader until the end. In “Inferno” hell is clearly organized according to the primary sins. The

sins are clearly defined and timeless; the punishments are specific and clearly linked to each sin.

There is no question over what is reality for the damned and what is not. It’s very easy when

reading Inferno to remain emotionally distant; to have the horror of hell wash over you and leave

you just as quickly as walking out of a horror house. Butler does not let the reader off so easily,

4 Butler 3

3
 Anne Nies / English 113 / Final Paper: Hell vs. Inferno / December 10, 2009

the meaning of hell is not given to the reader or to the damned as quickly as Dante gives it. He

leaves the reader to consider hell itself, rather than the beauty of his prose. By making the time,

place, and reason of the physical torments unpredictable Butler places his souls in the constant

fear of the unknown and the reader in a constant state of contemplation.

Throughout Hell the damned fight to be free and are punished for their struggles, but

always the false hope of escape returns. Whereas Dante’s souls are resigned to their punishment

and do not struggle against it. The torment of this false hope for escape is poignant in Hatcher’s

conversation with Judas before, the explosion of the spaceship (full of those hoping to finally

make it out of hell and into heaven).

And now behind Hatcher he can hear the voice of Jesus,

that familiar voice. “Hurry, my lambs. Hurry. It’s time.”

And Judas says with sudden, calm slowness, “I’ve been

through this before, man. I remember now.”

Jesus’s voice is very close and Hatcher begins to turn.

“A hundred times,” Judas says.

And Hatcher is facing Jesus, who is very near. And the

liver-brown hair is a bad wig. And the beard is fake. Plastic,

hooked loosely over the ears. And inside the overlarge robe is a

small, dark-skinned man with a smarmy voice that Hatcher

remembers from a special expose they ran on the alleged fakery

and fraud of his miracle services. Jesus is a creepy little self-

denominated evangelist named Benny Hinn.

4
 Anne Nies / English 113 / Final Paper: Hell vs. Inferno / December 10, 2009

“It’s a different dude each time,” Judas says softly.5

The fake Jesus is able to lead the damned onto the spaceship, but not Hatcher he’s too

smart for that he can see through the deceptions of hell to the truth. The reader cheers him on and

just like Hatcher does not consider that although Hatcher can see through the deception of the

fake Jesus, he did actually believe Judas. After the spaceship takes off and explodes the

situation of the damed is more fully revealed as Hatcher and Judas part.

Hatcher wants to say something encouraging to Judas, and

he begins, “The next time . . .” but he realizes he doesn’t know

how to finish the sentence. Perhaps with “. . . it will really be him

and he’ll know you.”

But before Hatcher can find those words, Judas finishes the

sentence himself. “. . . I will have forgotten all about this.”6

The torment is in not just having hope and loosing it again, but also that the same

situation plays out over and over. Knowing that although there is no point, there will be hope

again. Hatcher doesn’t give up on the idea of getting out, even in the face of this clear display of

the futility of escape. Rather he is encouraged, because he can see what so many others can not.

One of Hatchers goals that he does succeed in is to interview Satan, and he seems to

believe that in doing so he will find a way out. This makes sense if you consider the Inferno, in

it Dante has put Satan at the center and lowest point of hell, where he is tormented and trapped in

place, and more importantly he is held in the doorway out of hell. Dante and Virgil climb over

him on their way out.

5 Butler 208
6 Butler 210

5
 Anne Nies / English 113 / Final Paper: Hell vs. Inferno / December 10, 2009

The Emperor of the Universe of Pain

Jutted his upper chest above the ice;

and I am closer in size to the great mountain

the Titans make around the central pit,

than they to his arms.7

He wept from his six eyes, and down three chins

the tears ran mixed with bloody froth and pus.

In every mouth he worked a broken sinner

between his rake-like teeth. Thus he kept three

in eternal pain at his eternal dinner.8

In Inferno even Satan is clearly miserable and in torment. It can not be questioned for a

minute. Butler makes Satan very different, but still puts him on the apparent border of hell.

Butler’s Satan is more like a man bordering on the edge of insanity or an exiled prince than a

broken angel.

The car is climbing a narrow, curving, empty road into the

mountains that Hatcher heretofore has seen only on the horizon.

He puts his face to the glass and tires to look back to the city.9

Before him is a rustic hunting lodge-classically shaped in

one story of stacked rough logs with a low-pitched gable roof-but

even from where Hatcher sits, a hundred yards away, the lodge is

7 Alighieri Canto XXXIV Lines 28-32

8 Alighieri Canto XXXIV Lines 53-57
9 Butler 56

6
 Anne Nies / English 113 / Final Paper: Hell vs. Inferno / December 10, 2009

so massive as to utterly fill his sight, the rough wood trunks of its

walls as large as sequoias.10

Joe (Stalin) and Adolf (Hitler) tote Hatcher across the drive

and up the steps and through the front door, and striding toward

them, framed in the light from enormous veranda doors behind

him, is Satan, wearing a read-and-blue-plaid flannel shirt, Armani

jeans, and a RUTTIN BUCK camouflage hunting cap with tied-up

fleece earflaps. 11

Butler’s Satan is not the way out. He appears to be busy tormenting a chosen few, so

there is some hope for Hatcher that he can move about without being noticed. This idea is

further supported when Hatcher interviews Satan and comes to the conclusion that Satan can not

hear his thoughts. It’s interesting at this point, because while Hatcher is trying to find a way out,

he is instead solidifying the justice of his being in hell, by shooting people at Satan’s command.

It is a sharp contrast to Dante’s Inferno, where Satan is not free to devise new punishments or to

interact with the damned. There are demons to do that work. Certainly it is more disturbing to

have Satan wandering about hell, coming up with new tortures, than it is to have him safely

tucked away busy eating (someone that’s not you).

In Hell Satan has set up a broadcasting network and one of the primary features of it is a

special “Why do you think you’re here?” The habitants of hell are encouraged to reflect on their

previous sins and to ponder the reason(s) for their torment. In Inferno Minos judges each soul as

it arrives and places them in their respective circle. The idea that you don’t know why you’re in

10 Butler 57
11 Butler 59

7
 Anne Nies / English 113 / Final Paper: Hell vs. Inferno / December 10, 2009

hell, not specifically at least leads to an internal and personal torment. Was it that or this, why

did I do it, was it worth it? Always reflecting and questioning yourself. Butler uses the sins to

torment the damned, they do not know the present or future only the past. Hatcher is a normal

person, they all seem like normal people. Dante does just the opposite. His damned are villains

and can not know the past or present but only the future. It’s much easier to pity Hatcher, than it

is to pity Dante. Although both are in hell, and neither are enjoying it. Dante clearly justifies

why he must make this horrible journey, but Hatcher like all of the other damned has no clear

reason why he is in hell. He just doesn’t seem that bad, even being a reporter.

On every point Hell is set to cause both emotional and physical pain to those

contained within and everyone is there. But you can’t leave the novel behind without wondering,

is everyone really there? How much of that torment was specific to Hatcher and how much was

actually hell? This difficulty in drawing the line is part of what makes “Hell” such an effective

portrayal. Certainty gives comfort, but uncertainty is in its self a form of torture. Dante provides

great physical torment to those in Inferno but they are not the same group of desperate denizens

as in “Hell”. Butler has a much more personal hell than Dante. Although Dante adjusts the level

of torment based on the severity of the sin, he does not allow for multiple sins to be punished at

the same time. Butler’s hell on the other hand is a free for all. It’s that very nature which allows

the reader to hope for Hatcher; despite the futility of that hope. Without the emotional

investment of the reader hell can be portrayed with eloquence and cold intellectual power, but it

looses some of it’s potency if the reader is not also moved by what they have read.