The Lock Artist

Early in the novel, when Mike is working with the yellow pager crew on a haphazardly conceived robbery, an important aspect of his worldview emerges: his disdain for those who lack the skill or patience to work carefully, and who instead rely on brute strength and resort to violence. Mike takes pride in the subtlety and delicacy of his craft. The reader learns late in the novel, when Mike describes his apprenticeship with the Ghost, that Mike learned these values from his mentor: The Ghost emphasizes to Mike that he is “an artist” and that his “time is way more valuable than anybody else’s time” (264)—that is, his skills give him higher status than any of his criminal compatriots who do leg work.

The Ghost likewise stresses that violence is the recourse of the inferior-minded. Showing Mike the safe that has been wrecked by cutting, drilling, and other violent means, the Ghost says, “These are the methods of crude men. […] No patience. No skill. No intelligence. Just brute strength” (230). Similarly, he instructs, “You do not so much as touch a gun unless it’s an emergency” (263). Because of these values Mike absorbed from the Ghost, he distinguishes himself from other men throughout the novel: He looks down on the men in the yellow pager crew for their lack of careful planning; on his classmate Trey for needlessly smashing the Marshes’ aquarium during the break-in; on