meaning of Black Hat

The black hat is a symbol of the mystery surrounding Farris. On the day that she first meets Farris, Gwendy sees Farris leave walking down the Suicide Stairs. Before he has had time to walk down the entire set of stairs, Farris is gone and only his hat remains about halfway down the staircase. In another instance, Gwendy is horrorstruck when she sees a hat that looks like the one belonging to Farris blowing in the wind toward her and swooping in a circle around her as she watches Harry flying a kite.