Something that we haven't touched on a lot in class that has really struck me while reading The Memory of Running is that Smithy doesn't really seem like a middle aged man. It's been mentioned briefly during discussion that he seems to sometimes exhibit perhaps teen-like behavior/tone, but for me it's really just hard to picture him as this man in his 40's. Maybe I'm just weird-- I do this with a lot of adult narrators, but when I'm reading his narration I picture this guy who doesn't really have a specific age, he's just himself. But, even when I force myself to really produce a concrete image of him using descriptions from the text, his voice seems to go with someone who's not old enough to be my dad.
In a lot of ways Smithy doesn't seem to have really grown up. As an adult, he's still just as awkward as we see him in his memories of being a teenager; he doesn't really talk much and doesn't know what to say a lot of the time, he's never sure of what to do with himself, he has low self-esteem which affects how he handles himself, the list goes on and on. Even though he has been seeming more his age as the journey has progressed, he still shows some, I guess, youthful innocence in his actions. For example, when he saved the kid and the police thought he was like a child molester. He didn't really know what to do. He didn't realize he looked suspicious enough for the policeman to shoot him, and that's what ended up happening. He also hasn't had a lot of experience with women. As far as we know, he hasn't had any kind of serious relationship. His skills of interacting with the opposite sex haven't really improved since high school.
I guess it's just hard for me to age Smithy while reading his narration because he has some qualities that make him seem older (it's pretty easy to imagine a guy drinking off his troubles at a bar being middle aged), and others that are more immature.
Smithy’s age, as well as his appearance in general, is definitely something that we never touch upon: it’s something that we’ve stored in the back of our minds and we don’t really pay attention to. Until, there is an incident. When he gets shot, we wonder, why would somebody shoot this guy, he’s so sweet and innocent. And that’s when we realize, hey, this guy is a big guy with a beard and looks like a hobo (which is kind of true: he doesn’t actually have much money on him throughout the trip, and whatever money he uses, he doesn’t use it to look better). Smithy appears scary. People say don’t judge a book by a cover, but as I’ve said before, when I see a book, it’s the cover that attracts me, because that’s the first thing I see (that doesn’t mean that books without nicely illustrated covers are bad, I just don’t jump out to them because I’m not lured by them). And the same thing happens with Smithy-- he’s the type of guy that when you look at you try to stay away from.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that Smithy doesn't seem like his age. Whoever said it's like he stopped getting older after 14 was pretty spot on. It would be easy to change just a couple parts of the book and then have it be a story about an awkward teenage boy who runs away from home and has a crush on a handicapped girl back home. But it's much more original this way.
ReplyDeleteI NOTICED THIS TOO! He seems like he's in his late twenties than in his early forties. Plus, society has led us to think that there's something weird about a young woman such as Chris would be into a 43-year old, balding, fat man. I mean, it's not like it's a crime, some people are into that, and there's nothign wrong with it. But that's the image we're supposed to be imagining, you know?
ReplyDeleteI just think that the only way that McClarty only uses this to make Smithy seem more creepy to others, because other than that, it's hard to imagine this character in this way. It's just really confusing in general...
This post is spot on. Smithy's somewhat traumatic experiences in highschool and beyond somewhat stunted his mental growth, which brings an awkward and all too relatable aspect to this book.
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