Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Norma tells Jack an urban legend called "The Hook" when Jack first arrives in Chinook: a story about a pair of teenage lovers who narrowly miss an attack from a hook-handed lunatic. It's completely fictitious, but Norma presents it as "a true story that Norma made me promise never to tell anyone ever." (11.5). That's symbolic of the kind of social dynamic Jack see every day… presenting complete balderdash as some kind of Gospel truth. Most of us have heard the Hook story before, but never as an "it happened to me" kind of thing the way Norma tells it. Truth and fiction blur pretty often in Jack's world. Nowhere more so than in a campfire story presented as gospel fact.