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Jim Smiley is a classic anti-hero whose unusual and wily character traits drive the plot, provide humor, and elucidate many of the main ideas and themes of the story. Smiley is first and foremost an opportunist. Like most Americans who went west seeking gold during the California Gold Rush, Smiley is always looking to make a quick buck. While mining camps in the mid-19th century would likely be swarming with opportunists looking for a fast profit, Jim Smiley stands out. His willingness to bet on anything, literally anything, makes for some hilarious anecdotes. But it is his tendency to win, and his way of going about it, that earns him a reputation that years later has turned him into a legend. 

Jim Smiley’s mythologization speaks to the value system in Angel’s Camp and countless mining towns like it. Specifically, anything a person can get away with doing in order to make a little money is fair game. As an ingenious trickster and huckster, Jim Smiley is the very embodiment of this value. His “luck” is manufactured, as he knows his animals are more capable than their unimpressive appearances would suggest. This allows him to lure people into bets against them, which Smiley is all but sure of winning. Yet rather than gaining an ill reputation, Smiley is admired for his trickery. This reveals a value system turned on its head. Traditional values like fairness, honestly, and integrity have no place in a culture that values winning and the almighty dollar above everything else. Thus, in Angel’s Camp, anti-hero Jim Smiley becomes a true hero of legendary proportions.

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