Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Jamie wears a lot of figurative masks in Punkzilla. Most people think he's a girl, and he doesn't always correct them (case in point: Sam's mom); he tells Will (the sketchy/not-sketchy photographer) that his name is Cesar; and he dyes his hair black to look more punk. But the strangest mask Jamie dons by far is a literal one—it's a rubber Keanu Reeves head.
The mask comes to him courtesy of the backpack he steals from Sam, the eight-year-old kid he meets in the Idaho Greyhound station. After getting jumped and left behind by the bus, Jamie gets a ride from Sam's mom. However, when she thinks he's a girl and asks him if he's pregnant, instead of setting the record straight, Jamie seizes the opportunity to jump out of the car at a gas station stop. He grabs Sam's backpack from the front seat, heads off into a cornfield, and rummages through its contents.
There was some other weird stuff in the book bag that I have to tell you about P and this is what I found it was a rubber Halloween mask […] I'm almost positive the rubber Halloween mask is supposed to be Keanu Reeves who was that guy from The Matrix. (8.73)
Hey there, creepy Keanu. Anyway, having had the worst day of his life, Jamie hides in an abandoned car, puts the mask on and says:
The rearview mirror had been ripped off so there was no real way I could see what I looked like with the mask on but that was sort of an awesome feeling like I wasn't ANYONE for a second like I could be ANYTHING under the mask like a ghost or a wolf boy with a dead bird in my pocket or some green mist. (8.75)
Being Jamie Wyckoff is really hard, and being Neo—even a weird rubber-head version—is way better. Jamie's done a lot of stuff he's not proud of, and it's landed him in a terrible, dangerous situation. The mask makes him feel like he "gained special powers or […] like [he] became something else for a moment" (8.76). The mask, then, offers a bit of escape, even if it's only momentary. And since Jamie relishes it, it also lets readers know how badly this kid could use a break.