The Smokestack Twins & Adam Moore.
CW: discussion of child abuse.
The contrast between the twins' view of their father, Adam Moore, says a lot. Stack says that his father Adam used to beat him mostly, but follows up with “But. He ain't mean it.” As opposed to Smoke, who says Adam was hateful and wanted to kill Stack the day he was born, and how Stack “don’t know shit.” I wonder if deep down Stack blames himself for his mother’s death, so he either rationalized his father’s hatred of him, it may have been too painful to realize his father hated him for it and wanted to kill him, so he had to lie to himself, or maybe he truly didn't believe that his father hated him, his judgement of Adam was clouded. In contrast to Smoke, who can see situations and people clearly. When he loses Stack, he says, “Best thing about me was him.” He is under no illusion about who he is. No doubt Smoke had a higher kill count than Stack in WWI and Chicago Underworld. What’s interesting about Stack is that he’s a smooth talker whose good at persuading people, yet his fatal flaw is that he doesn’t seem to be able to see people as clearly as Smoke. I wonder if Smoke gave Stack shit for trying to do business with a Klansman, was hesitant and felt obligated to watch out for his younger brother, and protect him. Stack also implied that he was going to see what was up with Remmick, Joan and Bert on his own before Mary offered to do it instead. That’s why Smoke was deadly serious when he told Sammie that Stack doesn't know how to watch his own back. The twins different perceptions of Adam Moore are interesting and provide insight into the characters.
