November Post Reading
1. "You toss your luck in the air and it rattles down on the gambling boards and you either live or die."
. Out of the three quotes I think this one best applies to the book Ship Breaker. Nailer’s whole career is based around luck really. In his case you have to hope that the ship pays off. You have to chance it. There are many good examples of this in the book. Like in the beginning when Nailer fell into the oil, Sloth knew that while she left Nailer that it was possible he could survive. She knew the consequences of her actions yet she still rolled the dice of luck. In this case she “died” or lost in the roll. But in Nailer’s perspective he won. He was lucky enough to find a way out of the oil. This is the cause of rolling the dice as well. Nailer knew the many risks there were when he went inside the ship but he does it anyway.
Another time that Nailer rolled the dice of luck is when he convinced Pima not to kill the woman. I don’t think that Nailer did this only because he thought it was wrong to kill her but, I also think he believed some profit could come from saving the girl. He was not sure of it but he lost the chance of paying off his debt because he believed he could get more from this. His luck had payed off for a while and he decided to keep going. Doing this could have meant life or death for Nailer but he still took the risk.
Nailer took many risks in the book and this quote fits them all. When Nailer believed that saving the girl would have them rewarded he was rolling the dice with a 50/50 chance that it would turn out to be a good decision. He had barely any reason to believe that her father would repay them or that she would get them out of there when she left. Nailer believed in the girl and rolled the dice.
This quote also relates to real life quite a bit. There are many things that are purely based on luck and taking the chance. But most of the times the situations don’t involve life or death. Say you wish to apply for your first job but you’re nervous and don’t want to go through with it, you roll the dice of luck. Though your experience and smarts can help, like I mentioned in my pre reading.
This quote doesn’t exactly relate to my life specifically but I know for a fact it does for some people. This quote is very true in life and in the book. As someone grows up they will face more situations like this. But really while you’re young there are not as many.
