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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ghost, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Running and Trauma
Poverty
Friendship
Arrogance and Humility
Summary
Analysis
Castle Cranshaw, also known as Ghost, talks about a few strange world records, such as the man who holds the world record for blowing up the most balloons with his nose and the woman who owns the most rubber ducks. For his part, Ghost says he holds the world record for being the person who knows the most world records, as well as the one for consuming the most sunflower seeds.
Ghost is obsessed with the idea of greatness and what it takes to become the best at something. As the novel proceeds, he will struggle with balancing the proper levels of self-confidence and humility required to become great.
Themes
Ghost walks into his local convenience store, where the shopkeeper, Mr. Charles, already knows he has come to buy sunflower seeds. Mr. Charles and Ghost are good friends because Ghost has been coming to the store and buying sunflower seeds five times a week since he was in fourth grade, which was three years ago. Mr. Charles is also the person who gave Ghost a copy of The Guinness Book of World Records, which Ghost became obsessed with.
Ghost and Mr. Charles’s exchanges are ritualistic, suggesting they are quite comfortable with each other. Evidently, their relationship runs deeper than the typical relationship between a convenience store clerk and their customer, as Mr. Charles has presented Ghost with a gift that he treasures.
Themes
After leaving Mr. Charles’s store, Ghost heads to the bus stop where he eats his sunflower seeds. Despite sitting at the bus stop, Ghost does not want to go home; he would rather sit there, eat his sunflower seeds, and watch people work out at the nearby gym. While sitting at the bus stop, Ghost thinks about how his father also loves sunflower seeds. Ghost believes it is strange that his father could love the seeds of a beautiful flower and be such a bad person.
Ghost’s desire to sit at the bus stop rather than take a bus home suggests that there is something about his home that he does not like. Most likely, it has something to do with Ghost’s relationship with his father, which seems to be in disarray. For someone to dislike their parent so strongly at such a young age suggests that something has gone terribly wrong.
Themes
Three years ago, Ghost’s dad drank too much liquor and went crazy. From his bedroom, Ghost heard his mother, Terri, fighting with his father. Moments later, Terri came to Ghost and urged him to get out of the apartment. On the way out the door, Ghost’s father fired a pistol at him and his mother, though luckily the shot missed. Ghost and Terri escaped the apartment and took refuge in Mr. Charles’s store, which is open 24 hours a day. The incident was the last time Ghost saw his dad because after that he went to prison on a 10-year sentence.
Here, Ghost’s past trauma is revealed. It is a moment that will stick with him for much of the book and drive his behavior. This passage also reveals how Ghost and Mr. Charles became so close, as Mr. Charles gave Ghost and Terri shelter when they needed it most. This passage suggests that Ghost does not want to return home because of the lasting repercussions of his father’s behavior.
Themes
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