Lucky Jim is in many ways a book about Jim's feeling that the world is a basically unfair place. After all, it's not easy for him to watch a big blowhard like Bertrand Welch walk into a party with a beautiful girl on his arm (especially when Jim is there with a girl he's not attracted to). Plus, Jim has to spend most of his time hanging out with Professor Welch, a guy who's totally got it made in terms of his career, but who's also a bumbling fool. Is it unfair that a guy like Jim has to struggle while people like Professor Welch and Bertrand are successful? But hey, sometimes that's the way the cookie crumbles. Jim has a name for this. He calls it "luck."
Questions About Injustice
- As a reader, what would you say is the biggest injustice that Jim faces in this book?
- Do you find the ending of this book to be a morally just one? Do people get their just deserts?
- Do you "buy" the ending of this book? Is this how the story would really shake down in real life?
Chew on This
In Lucky Jim, we learn that the idea of people getting what they deserve doesn't hold true in the real world. It's all just the luck of the draw.
Amis suggests in Lucky Jim that people make their own luck.