Ghost

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2016

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-10

Background

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Overcoming Childhood Trauma

Content Warning: The source material and this guide discuss domestic violence.

Ghost opens with Castle remembering the night his father tried to shoot him and his mother. While he speaks cavalierly about this traumatic event, his actions and reactions show that he is still struggling to process the trauma of losing his father—both to his violent actions and his prison sentence. So long as Castle tries to ignore or run from his trauma, it keeps him stuck in place. As he bonds with his teammates and develops a positive relationship with Coach, he finally finds the strength and support he needs to heal from this trauma.

Castle’s trauma is clear in many of his actions. Forced to grow up quickly while enduring his father’s abuse, he has assumed a protective role in his home, sleeping on the floor outside his mother’s room. While this is a way for him to demonstrate his love for her, it also shows that he is trapped by his memory of the shooting. Though his father is in prison and no one is likely to hurt him and Teri, he still feels compelled to stand guard. This symbolizes how anxiety and trauma can self-perpetuate: Since Castle hasn’t confronted his fears, he relives them constantly. This is also apparent when Castle gets stuck in the storage room at Mr. Charles’s store and panics—this physical situation triggers his traumatic memories, causing him to run away. Until Castle joins the track team and confides in Coach, he is stuck reacting to his negative feelings, often in harmful ways like fighting.

Another way the text introduces Castle’s trauma is through his nickname: Ghost. Castle remarks that he chose this moniker the night of his father’s attack, when Mr. Charles sheltered Castle and his mother and said they looked like they’d seen a ghost. The fact that Castle identifies so deeply with this moment shows its profound impact on him; he introduces himself as Ghost to his teammates, wanting them to see the full context of who he is. Still, Castle doesn’t know how to deal with his complicated feelings about what has happened to him and generally maintains a façade to protect himself. When Coach brings the teammates to the Chinese restaurant and each teammate shares their secrets, Castle finally confides with them about his father. Their open-mindedness and support give Castle the space he needs to embrace who he became because of his father rather than needing to hide that person away. In other words, finding a community and confiding in friends helps Castle begin overcoming his trauma.

Castle’s healing journey is symbolized by the novel’s structure. The book begins and ends with the same two actions—a gun is fired, and Castle runs. While his trauma is sparked by fleeing his father’s gunfire, Castle’s context is completely different in the final chapter. He is running a race, not for his life; the gun is harmless, the start of something good rather than a possible violent end. As such, ending the novel with the starting pistol symbolizes Castle’s first steps into a new, brighter future.

You Can’t Escape Yourself

Soon after meeting Castle, Coach tells him, “You can’t run away from yourself. Unfortunately, ain’t nobody that fast” (51). This becomes a motif in the story, something Coach repeats at crucial moments in Castle’s character arc. Because Coach and Castle share similar backgrounds—they are from the same low-income neighborhood and both had abusive fathers—Coach recognizes that Castle’s coping mechanism involves running away from his trauma rather than facing it head-on. It wasn’t until Coach grappled with the truth of his past that he overcame it and embraced it as competitive fuel, and he helps Castle do the same.

One of Castle’s biggest fears in the novel is himself. He worries that he is just like his father, saying, “I guess the only other person I’m really scared of, maybe…is me” (51). As such, part of Castle’s trauma regarding his father is that because they are family, Castle will eventually behave just like his father. This fear is disproven by Castle’s actions throughout the novel—while he has a short trigger, he is mostly concerned with defending himself or protecting others, sleeping outside his mother’s room and always standing up for kids who are bullied. This extends even to Brandon—when his bully gets teased, Castle stands up for him too because he never wants anyone to feel small and excluded. While anger is a normal and healthy emotion, the manifestations of it that Castle has seen in his own life make him wary, and he tries to suppress this part of himself.

Coach helps Castle come to terms with who he is when he shares his childhood trauma. Something the two share is a deep love for their fathers despite their abuse—reflecting on positive memories with his father helps Castle see him as a complex, dynamic person instead of a monster. When he understands that different versions of his father exist, he realizes that his anger and flaws don’t define him either. This self-reflection allows Castle to rectify other harms in his life that he has been running from, such as apologizing for stealing the silver bullet sneakers. In turn, he is rewarded with the shoes, a spot on the team, new friends, and a supportive family.

Castle choosing to confront uncomfortable moments and feelings rather than continuing to run from himself helps him become more confident. This is evident in the final chapter when he is outfitted in his new team uniform and sneakers. The outfit symbolizes his new sense of purpose and positive goals, and the sight moves his mother to tears. In overcoming his trauma and building a strong community, Castle is no longer running from himself—he is here in the present.

Teamwork and Belonging

Before he meets the team, Castle feels isolated. He mentions only Red and Dre as his friends, and there is little evidence that they share any real affection or connection. He is teased at school for his clothes, and his interactions with his peers are often tense or violent. While he joins the track team as a sort of joke—he wants to beat the other runners rather than join them—the team ends up giving him a sense of belonging, a crucial tool in overcoming his trauma.

The team becomes a tribe for the runners and Coach. The team members share a goal and help each other train and grow. For the first time, Castle is working together with his peers rather than against them, creating a new way to relate. Likewise, being on a team levels the playing field. The team’s requirements are the same for everyone, regardless of anyone’s past. They are there to win, and they are either fast enough or they are not. No one makes excuses, and when they try, Coach doesn’t allow it.

Along with bonding over the physical challenge and competition—the teammates cheer for each other and acknowledge each other’s strengths—the teammates also share emotional bonds. After they share their secrets at the Chinese restaurant, Castle thinks, “It seemed like everybody at the table cared and didn’t care at the same time. And that made me feel, for the first time, like I was one of them” (135). He delights in this solidarity with his teammates, something he has never experienced before. In turn, he offers that same support for them. As the other newbies share their hardships—Sunny losing his mother and dealing with his father’s expectations, Patty’s mother losing her legs and giving her up for adoption, and Lu’s feelings about his albinism—Castle realizes that he is not alone.

Without the team, each student might have had a harder life. Yet through the team, they find strength and support in each other. No matter what happens to them, Coach is always there, and they always have track. Ghost illustrates that hardships can be mitigated by goals and hard work. Progress and healing are unlikely if all one ever does is dwell on the past without trying to move past it. Before he joins the team, Castle spends most of his life just existing, trying to get through another day. When he starts working and training with intent alongside people who support him, he begins to thrive and imagine a better future.