Smithy Ide is hands down the most self deprecating character I have ever read, and his continual castigation of himself has quite a few effects on the story. I don't find it to be particularly endearing. However, it does factor into the reader's opinion of Smithy in the sense that his self deprecation is a part of the whole Smithy-to-us vs. Smithy-to-the-rest-of-the-world dichotomy, which is a thread that runs through the whole book.
Every time Smithy says or does something stupid, he mercilessly ridicules himself for it, and, as readers of his thoughts, are privy to his private little hatefest. Whichever other characters witnessed his screw-up don't see him upbraid himself. All they see is an obese man who with seemingly sub-par social skills. We, then, see that he does in fact understand social rules and recognizes when he is awkward, other characters don't.
The self-deprecation also complicates the issue of narrator reliability. On one hand, Smithy's self-deprecation could make us trust him. Maybe it's because he seems to trust us, or maybe it's because of the fact that he is willing to portray himself in such a negative way. I've tended to trust him.
But sometimes I wonder if he doesn't become blinded by his own self loathing. For example, when he talks about how his shorts were getting looser, it never even occurs to him that he might be losing weight, which is odd, considering how fixated he is on his size. Of course McLarty fully intended for the readers to pick up on that bit of subtext, but maybe Smithy's behavior isn't always as idiotic as he makes it out to be.
This little concern is kind of hard to address because Smithy's narrative style. Often, his descriptions don't leave a lot of room for subjectivity: "I was 279 pounds." He gives a pretty succinct accounts of his dialogue and actions. But sometimes this succinctness (not a word?) works backward, allowing ambiguity. He assumes he seemed stupid when he said/did such and such. Do we believe him?
Smithy's lack of self-confidence is a really interesting and unique character trait, so I'm excited to see what McLarty does with it as Smithy makes his way across the country and confronts the issues from his past.
Fun fact: I googled Ron McLarty, and it turns out he's an occasional TV actor and has appeared in Law and Order and did a voice in a Batman video game. Huh.
There are certainly times when I find Smithy's self-deprecation endearing, like when he berates himself for saying "stupid" things at the hospital--the doctors all patronize him and explain this serious, complex stuff like he's a child who needs to have it broken down into Star Wars metaphors, and he feels so helpless and alone and confused, of course he says "stupid" stuff. But most readers feel like we might be pretty stupid in such a situation as well--if he were cool and collected and brilliant at a moment like this, it would be off-putting, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteBut there's also that classic dimension where the self-deprecation, coming from someone most of us *like*, simply invites us to reflect on what we like about Smithy. His stupidity and clumsiness often blurs over into remarkable kindness and gentleness, and his sincere desire not to be a burden on anyone else.
I agree with our post, but Smithy kind of showed a bit of self confidence in last night's reading. When he was talking to Georgina, after she accuses him of molesting Bethany and explaining to her what actually happened, he walks out of her office without apologizing. Behind him, he can hear her say "Sorry," but then the chapter ends and Smithy doesn't look back on what happened. This is odd, because he normally would think back on his actions and probably criticize himself.
ReplyDeleteI think that there's something slightly endearing about Smithy's self-deprecation, if only because you get the sense that he's not stuck up at all (and it's a lot easier to like people who aren't stuck up.) However, I admit that it can get tiresome after a while. I do think that he is easily blinded by his low self worth, and this does detract from his reliability as a narrator. I think that if we take Smithy's comments about himself with a grain of salt, he's fairly reliable. At least we always know that he's never over-exaggerating his importance/involvement.
ReplyDeleteLike Ansel said, Smithy does finally show some self-confidence when he explains the Dr. Glass what really happened to Bethany. I was confused why this chapter was put into the book because it isn't a mark of any development. After that scene, he reverts back to being the shy, quiet Smithy who never defends himself and tries to not be a burden on anyone. I really liked this chapter because Smithy was finally standing up for himself, but it felt really out of place when he never does it again.
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