You Can’t Win · Chapter
VIII explained
After Smiler is shot and killed during a burglary attempt, the narrator flees in shock, hides, cleans up, and buys new clothes.
What happens
After Smiler is shot and killed during a burglary attempt, the narrator flees in shock, hides, cleans up, and buys new clothes. He is later arrested and jailed, where he refuses to talk, following Smiler's advice. At his hearing, a woman testifies she shot one man, and the landlord confirms the narrator was not in the room that night. The prosecutor uses his silence against him.
Themes in this chapter
Underworld Code and Loyalty
The narrator follows Smiler's advice to 'clam up' when arrested, showing loyalty to the criminal code even after Smiler's death.
Survival and Adaptability
The narrator hides, cleans up, buys new clothes, and decides to return to the room despite the risk, demonstrating quick thinking and adaptability.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“I remembered his advice and said to them as respectfully as I knew how: 'You gentlemen have arrested me for something, I don’t know what. But I would rather not make any statement till I can see an attorney and get his advice.'”
He recalled Smiler's instruction to stay silent and politely told the officers he would not speak until he had a lawyer.
Demonstrates the narrator's adherence to the underworld code of silence.
“I knew Smiler was there before he snatched the sheet off. When we went into the undertaker’s I felt they were going to show me his body, but I couldn’t understand why.”
He sensed Smiler's body was under the sheet before it was revealed, though he did not grasp the officers' intent.
Shows the narrator's emotional shock and the police's tactic to intimidate him.