GHOSTS ANALYSIS PDF

Ghosts Analysis PDF – Chimamanda Adichie

A Silent Song and Other Stories 

Chimamanda Adichie's story “Ghosts” revolves around the protagonist James Nwoye, a 71 year old retired mathematics professor.  Nwoye lives off a pension, although he does not receive it when he should.

The story explores how memories of the past can haunt us in the present. The tale, aptly named “Ghosts”, opens when Nwoye meets his former colleague Ikenna Okoro whom he thought had died in the Biafran war. His first thought is to throw sand at him, his people’s traditional practice to ascertain that a person is not a ghost. He restrains himself since he is a Western-educated man or so we think.

Characters in Ghosts

• James Nwoye – retired professor
• Ebere – James’s late wife
• Zik – James’s late daughter
• Nkiru – James’s daughter (doctor)
• Ikenna Okoro – James’s former colleague
• Vincent – James’s former driver
• Professor Ezike
• Dr. Anya
• Chuck Bell – James’s American friend
• Josephat Udeana – inept vice chancellor Nkussa university
• Harrison – James’s gardener
• Dr. Otgabu
• Professor Ijere – James’s next door neighbour
• Professor Maduewe – James’s friend

Summary of Ghosts

The professor is in the university to collect his pension yet again.  The pension money is mismanaged or stolen. Some people claim that the pension money was stolen by the education minister. Another avers that the vice chancellor deposited the money in high interest personal accounts. Since ordinary Nigerians cannot access pension, many of them are poverty-stricken. The former university staff (drivers and messengers) are tattered and hungry. They have not received pension for three years. Vincent, professor’s former driver avers that, “This is why people retire and die.” (pg. 58)

Adichie uses Vincent to shine a light on the plight of poor retirees of the university. The former driver is now a cobbler, who mends students shoes but they never pay him on time. He also complains about Nigeria being an ungrateful country. His skin is so wrinkled that he appears older than Nwoye who is older than him. The other workers, who are also there to collect their elusive pension, decry the poor state of affairs: carpentry is not going well, their children are ill and they have money lender problems. They laugh as they talk as if to conceal their resentment. Nwoye sympathizes with them. Luckily for him, he has some savings and receives some dollars from his daughter Nkiru who is a doctor in America. The men's ashy hands and faces remind him of how Ebere his late wife used to rub lotion on his body. This fond memory is a testament of their once affectionate bond.

Nwoye is shocked to meet Ikenna Okoro, a man he thought died 37 years ago. It is as if he had seen a ghost. Although Ikenna Okoro and Nwoye were not friends, everyone knew Ikenna Okoro. He was an eccentric dissident who never shied away from speaking his mind. He petitioned the government about better conditions for the non-academic staff. Other lecturers admired his edgy fearlessness. However, he now seems a pale shadow of his former brash self. Nwoye can pick up unusual diffidence (lack of confidence) about Ikenna Okoro.

Nwoye believes Ikenna Okoro died on July 6^th, 1967 the day they were evacuated from Nsukka. Their enemy, the federal soldiers, was advancing but the militia assured them of victory in a matter of days. Nwoye believed that the vandals (federal soldiers) would be defeated in a week or two. As the professor flees in his Impala, he observes the villagers fleeing on foot, women with boxes on their heads and babies on their backs hurry away. The men push bicycles and carry yams. They would later return to the misery of having to pick through the lecturers dust bins after the war.

Nwoye spots Ikenna Okoro driving back into campus. He tries to dissuade him but Ikenna Okoro is a headstrong renegade. When Nsukka is captured by the federal soldiers, two lecturers are killed. Nwoye assumes that one of them was Ikenna Okoro. Nwoye is disappointed to learn that Ikenna Okoro fled to Sweden on a Red Cross plane instead of staying to support the Biafran cause. He is angry at the saboteurs who betrayed the Biafran cause, which he supports dearly. Since his entire family was wiped out when a bomb was dropped in Orlu, Ikenna Okoro chose to stay in Sweden since he had no reason to come back. He claims that while there he organized Biafran rallies and fundraising.

The war had a devastating aftermath. When Ebere and Nwoye return to Nsukka in 1970, (three years after they left) they are dismayed  by the amount of destruction they find. Their books are a charred pile under the umbrella tree, lumps of calcified feces in the bathtub, pages of books used as toilet paper, Ebere’s piano missing, Nwoye’s graduation gown used to wipe something and crawling with ants and their photos ripped and frames destroyed. Devastated, they decide to leave for America and they do not return until 1976 (six years later.)

While there, his American friend Chuck Bell helps him secure a teaching appointment. When they return they are assigned a new house but they are disheartened when the umbrella tree at their old house is cut down by the new occupants. Sadly, we learned that Nwoye's daughter Zik perished in the war.

Another victim of the war is Chris Okigbo – a poetry colossus that Nwoye refers to as “Our genius, our star.” He took up a gun to defend Nsukka. Nwoye regrets when he says that at least he was brave enough to fight. He feels like it sounded like a jibe meant to deride Ikenna Okoro who fled when the war began. Out of discomfort, Nwoye decides to tell Ikenna Okoro about the day Ebere and he drove back to Nsukka and witnessed the destructive aftermath of the war: Landscape of ruins, blown out roofs, houses riddled with bullet holes and the wounded soldier who was shoved into their car bleeding profusely. Nwoye tries to cheer up Ikenna Okoro by saying that the metallic smell of the soldier's blood reminded him of Ikenna. This was a lie.

Ikenna Okoro sheds tears when he learns that Ebere died three years ago. Nwoye tells him that she visits him as an apparition but he dismisses it by simply quipping “I see”. Ikenna Okoro perceives belief in ghosts as madness because of his education.

Nwoye clearly misses his wife and the physical aspect of their relationship. He reminisces about how his wife would rub lotion into his skin. This is testament of how they had a strong intimate relationship when she was alive. He keeps her alive in his imagination by imagining that she visits him as a ghost. He is reluctant to tell his daughter about the mother's visits lest she drags him back with her to America.

The war and loss denies Nwoye the opportunity of teaching his grandson his language and simple courtesies like greeting strangers. The grandson lives in America with his mother. The family is broken as a result of the war.

The two acquaintances then talk about the university Staff Club. The club is a shell of what it used to be. The novices are incompetent. There is no teaching going on. They are only concerned about university politics. The students buy grades with money or their bodies. The Senate meetings have degenerated into personality-cult battles. Ikenna Okoro and Nwoye recall memories of Josephat Udeana Who was once the best ballroom dancer. He has been a vice chancellor for six years and has ran the university like a chicken coop. He stole university money and bought himself new cars. Court cases challenging this misappropriation did not bear fruit. Josephat runs the university as a one man show and dictates the promotion or stagnation of the university staff. The vice chancellor who replaces him is not any different. The inefficiency in the university is so rife that Nwoye and many others have not received any pension long after they retired. No one speaks against the widespread corruption and inaction. Ironically, even the lecturers bribe someone to change their dates of birth in order to work for five more years. No one wants to retire.

The corruption and inefficiency is experienced all over the country. The professor shakes his head resignedly “as if to say that the situation is, sadly, ineluctable.”

The latest plague in the country is fake drugs. People sell expired medicine. Ebere died because of ineffective medication. She was getting weaker and weaker instead of recovering from the medication. Nwoye was distraught. He says gravely that, “Fake drugs are horrible.”

Nwoye spends his retirement days visiting an old friend, taking leisurely walks, reading newspapers, talking to their daughter, reading all journals and watching birds from his veranda. From his admission we learned that the roads have potholes, motorcycles are ridden recklessly and you have to bribe someone at NITEL just to have your phone repaired.

Since Ebere started visiting, James stopped going to church since he claims that he is no longer uncertain of the afterlife.

As they part ways, Nwoye invites Ikenna Okoro who assents but he knows he would not come.   

Nwoye has more fond memories of Ebere as he remembers how she used to mock other people’s Mercedes. He says she still has a sense of humor even as a ghost.

While watching TV, he sees a man that admits selling fake typhoid fever medicine that doesn't kill people but does not cure the illness either. The only consolation for Nwoye is that Ebere visits him.

It turns out that nobody talks about the war but the harrowing memories keep lingering like ghosts. James recalls horrors like crouching in muddy bunkers during air raids, burying corpses, eating cassava peels and helplessly watching their children battling malnutrition.

As Nwoye sits in his study, he waits for a call from his daughter Nkiru or a visit from the ghost of his late wife Ebere.

 

The  destructive aftermath of the war in Ghosts by Chimamanda Adichie

• Displacement of families 
• Death – Zik, two lectures, Chris Okigbo, Ikenna's entire family
• Destruction of property
• Landscapes with ruins, blown out roofs, houses with holes
• Trauma – Wounded soldier, Ikenna Okoro pale shadow of his former self; hallucinations 
• Separation of families – Nkiru and his son live in America
• Harrowing conditions – muddy bunkers
• No food – cassava peels, malnutrition, relief food, picking through dustbins 
• Poverty
• Fake drugs
• Corruption - bribery
• Poor infrastructure  

GHOSTS PRACTICE ESSAY QUESTIONS

The survivors of war live with painful memories and experiences. Write an essay to support this statement citing illustrations from Chimamanda Adichie's Ghosts.

Do you believe in ghosts? What is the lesson in this story?

Next: God Sees the Truth, but Waits analysis 

ESSAYS: Read A Silent Song and Other Stories Essays and Answers PDF here