"How I Became a Ghost"
Category A, Prompt D
Ch. 13 How I Became a Ghost, is titled “The Coming of my Final Day”. The theme of this novel is the tragedy Native Americans faced because of soldiers pushing them out of their land. Additionally, the theme largely deals with death. This aspect of the death theme is more complicated than death as a standalone theme considering the narrator, Isaac, is aware that he will die and become a ghost. Both class and race play into the theme as Native Americans were subjected to genocide and mistreatment. How I Became a Ghost is a representation of The Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of Native Americans.
One of the novel’s motifs is Isaac reminding the reader that he will soon become a ghost. At this point, Isaac finally must tell his loved ones that he will soon die. He says, “Please don’t anyone be mad at me...I don’t want to upset anyone. Losing our home was bad enough,” and this representation of loss is directly linked to race. (Tingle, 60) They lost their home because of their race; because of Treaty Talk. Isaac experiences guilt because he knows that he will become a ghost, but there’s a strange inherency in him eventually dying. The conditions he is subjected to as a child are simply not conditions that every child can endure.
Interestingly, upon Isaac revealing that he will soon become a ghost, his family is accepting. Old Man tells him, “We are proud of you,” and these words are profound in understanding the dire straits the Native Americans faced. (60) The usage of the word “proud” is deliberate and reveals how unavoidable death and consequence are in the context of The Trail of Tears. Isaac continues to tell his family that ghosts come to him, “Ghosts come to me”. (60) Typically this notion of seeing and feeling death as a mortal being may be perceived as unusual. However, Native Americans are known to tell ghost stories and stories about spirits. This must contribute to his family’s understanding: there’s a certain faith and hope that they posses that other races and cultures may not. Isaac’s loved ones are of course saddened but Old Man tells him that it is something his family needed to know. When reading this passage with respect to historical and cultural context, the sense of calm is telling. The sense of calm and the language Isaac uses as a narrator like exemplify the conditions Natives faced, and the tragic expectedness of loss: “He can be safe, but it will not matter. Isaac will be dead soon. He will join the others. He will be a ghost.” (61) This language depicts acceptance, and the tone reveals a sense of matter-of-factness that only certain populations can empathize with. Becoming a ghost, knowing people who have become ghosts were inherent in being a Native American on The Trail of Tears.
Your post references Isaac's sense of calm and I agree with that description. We are presenting on this book and Native Americans are described as "diplomatic" in the article. I think both these adjectives accurately describe the demeanor of the young adolescent depicted in this book especially after he comes to terms with his fate as a ghost.
ReplyDeleteHi Lexi,
ReplyDeleteYour final paragraph in this piece comes closest to answering the prompt for category A, option d, which is "Look at the issue of identity—class gender, race, nationality, religion, etc—in the text. Conduct a close reading of one passage and analyze its representation of/ engagement with one of these key aspects of identity." A calm acceptance of death may very well reflect Isaac's Choctaw identity and Indigenous peoples' history of bravery in the face of suffering. However, the first few paragraphs of the response do not set up a discussion of identity. The intro paragraph deals with theme and the second paragraph deals with motif, so the focus of the response was difficult to pin down. It almost reads as if you are sampling the various other options under Category A before arriving at a discussion of identity in the final paragraph