I think Smithy's luck is like Anse's, because they both have terrible luck and even when they try to help out in a situation they make everything worse. It makes me pity both of them, except when I think of Smithy, I want his luck to get better, but when I think of Anse, I want him to go die in a hole.
As far as I can remember, Smithy's had two bad incidents when trying to help somebody.
The first time was with Carl. Sure, he came out on top in the end, but before that it was terrible. He was hit by the dude's car, had his bike broken, and had to patch himself up. Then, when he agrees to help the dying Carl, he gets the pee beaten out of him by a police officer and has to call Carl's loved ones to inform them about his death.
It kinda reminds me of Anse trying to fix the quilt on Addie, and how he kept on messing it up the more he tried. Both experienced such bad luck trying to help out. The difference here is that Anse's luck never turned around in this situation, and got worse but Smithy's luck turned around. He got new clothes and a new bike, which meant he could continue his journey.
The second incident that Smithy has is when he rescues the little boy from the river. That led to the other people, which included some guy with a gun, to come find the kid. Of course, with Smithy's luck, he gets shot.
While Anse doesn't do anything that injures himself (because he can't sweat or else bad things happen), he still makes situations so much worse. He insists on Jewel and Darl going to town right before Addie dies so their journey is harder because of the river. Then he also refuses to get Cash to a doctor and decides to use cement to make a cast. I mean, really? I understand there wasn't that many choices, but even when Anse tried to help Cash, he made the situation worse. Cash ends up losing the leg! What the heck?!
At least Smithy seems to be able to bounce back better than before, so I'm expecting him to survive being shot (he's the main character after all) so he'll probably be fine.
I mean, in a way I guess Anse also did bounce back in the end. He got his teeth and a new wife! That obviously shows that he didn't have terrible luck, but I don't know if I'd consider that good luck...
But yeah, that's just my thoughts. Smithy and Anse both have bad luck but bounce back (kinda) later on. So many Smithy's luck will be like Anse's and he'll get a wife by the end of the book.
I totally agree with this connection. Although, one difference between Smithy and Anse and their problems, is that I feel sympathetic towards Smithy and not really towards Anse. I assume this is because Smithy is so humble and honest, where as Anse tries to seem proud but can't seem to do things rights. In my opinion, this characteristic makes Smithy more heroic than Anse, and I feel like Smithy deserves the new bike, clothes, etc, whereas, I don't think Anse deserved the new teeth or wife.
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