“Once a day, we die all over again. You get used to it, but it’s not really polite to watch someone re-dying their last moments of true contact with the world. For some of us, that moment becomes precious, a treasured thing.”
The narrator edifies the reader about the ghosts’ endeavors to revive themselves. The incapability to convert from ghosts into humans is equivalent to a second death. The ghosts are still fascinated by life, but they lack the potency to modify their form.
“Even when you’re dead, some things cut close to the bone. Sometimes Baby Boo cries, and it makes my arms ache with the memory of feeding Brandon when he was that little, watching his tiny pursed mouth latch on to the nipple of his bottle, seeing his eyes staring big and calm up at me as though I were his whole world.”
The narrator conjectures that ghosts are reactive to emotions. Baby Boo’s cries make the narrator reminiscent of his son. The narrator’s pathos are ironic seeing that he is a departed though. Fundamentally, it would be Brandon who would be reminiscent of how his father nourish him as a baby.
“I say to Black and Jimmy, “It’s so unfair that we can’t see or hear the world. That we can’t touch, taste, or smell it.”
Being a ghost is prejudicial because it repudiates the chance of exploiting human senses. The ghosts exist in an absurd world. Once one has become a ghost, he/she discards the human qualities. The ghostly status is irrevocable.
“Black Anchor says fiercely, “What else? Smell something else!” Her voice doesn’t sound human any more. It’s hollow, mechanical, nothing like a sound made by air flowing over vocal chords.”
The ghost’s voice is muffled and it can only be perceived by ghosts. A living human would not be able to recognize a ghost voice because it is dissimilar from the human voice. So ghost can determine that an individual is one of them through the mechanical-like voice.
“People say that once he was outside, they couldn’t see him any longer. They say he shouted, once. Some people say it was a shout of joy. Some of them think it was agony, or terror. Jimmy says the shout sounded more like surprise to him. Whatever it was, the guy never came back.”
The ‘he’ exited mall and treaded into the peripheral world. According to the story nobody is acquainted with what became of the ‘he’. The guy ventured into a world that the ghosts have never explored. The ghosts’ opposing assertions regarding the guy’s sound after stepping outside emphasizes the obscurity and uncertainty that is ubiquitous in the ghost world.
“He was cultured and well-spoken. He had been abroad, talked of exotic sports: ice hockey, downhill skiing. He took her to fancy restaurants she’d only heard of, that her other, young, unestablished boyfriends would never have been able to afford, and would probably only have embarrassed her if they had taken her.”
Samuel’s financial footing accords him a competitive edge over the other men who are fascinated by Beatrice. Consequently, Beatrice falls for him and ties the knot him. Beatrice deliberates on the material paybacks that she would acquire from each of her boyfriends and she settles on Samuel, even though he is elderly, because he guarantees the highest amount of material reimbursements. Samuel is the utmost bidder in the contest for Beatrice’s heart.
“Never mind, sweetness,” Samuel told her. “I didn’t like the idea of you studying, anyway. Is for children. You’re a big woman now.” Mummy had agreed with him too, said she didn’t need all that now. She tried to argue with them, but Samuel was very clear about his wishes, and she’d stopped, not wanting anything to cause friction between them just yet.”
Samuel is an overbearing man with a patriarchal mentality for he does not sponsor Beatrice’s academic undertakings. Surprisingly, her mother adjusts her standpoint on the essence of her daughter studying extensively and acing A’s after Beatrice’s nuptial to Samuel who is affluent. Her mother’s conversion of viewpoint is accredited to the blinding stemming from the material recompenses that Samuel bids her after espousing her daughter. Samuel is tyrannical because he anticipates his wife to toe the line to his requests without disapproval.
