Lucky

“Luciana Armstrong stood in the bathroom of a gas station in Idaho, close to the Nevada border.”

This is the first sentence of Chapter 1, moments before Luciana, aka Lucky, buys her winning lottery ticket. The setting of the “Nevada border” alludes to the Western genre, foreshadowing the fact that the text will follow Lucky’s adventurous quest to evade the law and end in a gold rush.

“As little as she knew about religion, she worried that she and her father were definitely bad. They lied, they stole, they snuck around.”

Lucky touching her gold crucifix necklace causes her to think about morality. It symbolizes faith and her quest to find her mother. Her worries characterize her as an independent thinker whose agency is inhibited by her father.

“You have to believe it yourself or it won’t work.”

This is John’s advice to Lucky about grifting. For lies to be convincing, the liar has to believe them. This develops the theme of Performance and Lies, as it describes the mental process of a con artist.

“There was always a price to be paid.”

This passage refers to Lucky getting bruised from one of her scams. The bruise is something that she has to endure to get the woman’s money. This is a Faustian bargain, which alludes to Christian belief about making a pact with the devil to obtain a favor such as wealth.

“That, right there, was the grift itself: that moment of hope, that quickening of pulse, the what if, what if it’s me, what if it’s my ticket, what would I do with all that money, who would I become?”

This is the moment in the novel when Lucky realizes that her ticket is a winner, based on a news broadcast about the unclaimed winnings she sees. The ticket symbolizes the dream of a different life. Stapley uses the anaphora “what if” to reinforce the excitement of potential and The Power of Luck and Hope.

“Everything with them was temporary.”

This passage develops the theme of Familial and Romantic Influences. Lucky’s father’s grifting caused them to only have temporary homes while Lucky was growing up, and she wants a more stable life. This establishes a central conflict in the novel as Lucky strives for stability.

“At school, she felt real: she truly was Andrea ‘Andi’ Templeton, a fifth-grade student.”

Lucky easily believes her lies when she is pretending to be what she wants to be—a normal elementary school student. This establishes the fact that the grifts in the text also represent hope even while Stapley conveys their immorality.

“Finding her mother someday wasn’t a dream she was giving up on, she realized.”

In this passage, Lucky is unable to pawn the gold crucifix because it symbolizes her desire to meet her biological mother. This foreshadows the fact that Sister Margaret Jean will recognize the crucifix and reconnect Lucky with her mother.

“I bought a ticket to remember you by.”

This passage is from when Lucky visits John in San Quentin. She explains that she bought her lottery ticket because it was something John had done throughout her life. This reinforces the moral ambiguity of John’s characterization, since he and Lucky have a difficult relationship with love nonetheless.

“That word. The idea of having faith, of being good. Lucky reached up and touched the crucifix hanging from her neck.”

This passage develops the symbolism of the crucifix, since Stapley uses the double meaning of faith: religious belief and confidence in something. This connects the cross to Lucky’s hope for finding her mother.

“It was only people like them who would be out on a night like this. The drifters. The rolling stones.”

Lucky longs for a permanent home. Her transient life, due to her father’s crimes, is represented in the verbs in this passage that denote motion, “drifting” and “rolling.” However, each of these verbs are encased in incomplete sentences, suggestion that this motion will take Lucky nowhere.

“Stay here, work a bit, and have a think about deciding on a proper destination, rather than wandering around.”

While Lucky is on the run, she temporarily works as a waitress in a diner in Oregon. The co-owner of the diner, Arlene, tells Lucky that she can stay as long as she likes. This is an example of the kind of home that she is looking for and the kind of people she wants in her life.

“I love numbers. I love their…predictability.”

This passage is from when Lucky attends her first party as a teenager. While the dancing in this scene is literal, Stapley also employs the dancing as a metaphor which represents Lucky feeling out of sync with others because her transient life hasn’t allowed her to make friends.

“Everyone else was dancing to the same beat, and she was out of step.”

This passage is from when Lucky attends her first party as a teenager. While the dancing in this scene is literal, Stapley also employs the dancing as a metaphor which represents Lucky feeling out of sync with others because her transient life hasn’t allowed her to make friends.

“I like numbers a lot, Alaina. I like how predictable they are—when so many things in life aren’t.”

Here, Cary agrees with Lucky’s love of numbers. He seduces her by taking an interest in what she is interested in, as well as pretending to want a predictable life. Cary being able to sway Lucky into dating him while lying develops the theme of Familial and Romantic Influences, since Lucky falls into a pattern of believing lies.

She felt like a character in one of her books.”

Because she spends so much of her life on the road and not around people her own age, Lucky understands experiences by comparing them to what she reads. Books symbolize a different and desirable life. In this passage, she compares falling in love with Cary and fictional characters from love stories.

“He had always said they could lie to other people, but never to each other.”

This passage occurs when Cary and Lucky scam some Stanford students. Cary convincing Lucky to scam the students develops the theme of Familial and Romantic Influences, since he attempts to form Lucky’s worldview and isolate her from others.

“Blood on a bathroom floor was not something a detective sitting outside your house could easily uncover.”

Here, Lucky confronts the antagonist, Priscilla, who believes that Lucky is still pregnant with her grandchild. Priscilla’s spy didn’t discover Lucky’s miscarriage. Stapley describes this in graphic and stark detail which juxtaposes with Lucky’s nonchalant delivery, suggesting that Lucky is becoming desensitized to her difficulties.

“The only way to get people to believe the things you said was to really believe in them yourself.”

Sister Margaret Jean echoes a sentiment that John tells lucky early in the novel; however, this sentiment is now inverted as it highlights that one must believe in faith and hope.

“I said you were my daughter because that’s what I’ve always felt. You are.”

This is John’s response when Lucky confronts him about his lies regarding her mother. This exemplifies the pathos that Stapley evokes at the end of John’s character arc; he is characterized as a misguided carer rather than an antagonist.

“How did a person pray—and why did a person pray, exactly?”

This passage is from when Lucky and John return to the church where he found her. John didn’t teach her about Catholicism when she was growing up and they were grifting. This causes Lucky to behave poorly in the church, blowing out the candles she lights. It suggests that Lucky needs guidance, foreshadowing her reunion with her mother.

“The odds had always been stacked against Lucky, but now they were insurmountable.”

Lucky feels completely unlucky when she discovers that Priscilla stole her winning lottery ticket. This feeling causes Lucky to decide to turn herself into the police. This is her lowest point before she meets her mother, and it provides suspense before the novel builds towards its resolution.

“She felt so alone. But not for long. Her mother appeared in front of her […] they were together at last.”

This passage occurs after the FBI catch Priscilla with Lucky’s help. In the chaos immediately after the arrest, Lucky feels lonely. However, Valerie finds her. This is a positive example of Familial and Romantic Influences.