One of the themes in the Zoo Story is that we often hide behind mask. We live in a cage of our own creation and like the animals in the zoo we can tell that something exist on the other side of the cage, but we don't know who. We practice sort of artificial forms of communication. We have become experts at communication that says nor reveals anything and everyone walks away happy, but unfulfilled because the real desire is to be heard. It is not so much that we wonder what people will think if they see behind the mask, but what we might discover about yourself if we take it off and see ourselves.