4000 Miles of Leo Smiling

Seriously though does the guy ever stop smiling? When I was reading 4000 Miles, this was one of the things that kept grabbing my attention. Every time he was in a bad situation or for lack of a better word emotionally compromised he smiles.He never yells or cries, he just smiles. It's a defense mechanism that he can't seem to shake. I thought it was interesting that he does do this because it's such a little kid thing to do, smile really big to make it impossible to be mad at him for whatever he's done. This adds to his character because he is this young adult who refuses to grow up. Everything that goes wrong for him in the play his first response is to smile like it'll make the situation less upsetting. Also you see that at the end of the play he doesn't smile as much as he does at the beginning showing that he's growing up. This motif is a good way to track Leo's character development.