Ghost grows up in Glass Manor, the poorest part of town, with a single mother who does everything she can to help her family get by. Growing up poor means constant sacrifice for Ghost, who never has clothes that fit or a proper haircut. Although everyone knows where he lives, he is embarrassed to admit it, and negative comments about Glass Manor fuel his rage—highlighting that poverty impacts people’s emotional wellbeing in addition to their physical and material security. Ghost feels that other people fundamentally do not understand him because they don’t understand how he lives. They do not know what it is like to eat leftover cafeteria food every day for dinner or to not be able to afford the proper equipment for track practice. For much of his time on the track team, Ghost runs in refashioned nursing scrubs and stolen sneakers because he cannot afford anything else. This causes him immense shame while also opening him up to bullying, something that has a negative impact on all other aspects of his life. Whether he likes it or not, poverty is something that comes to define Ghost, as he does not have the same opportunities available to him as those around him. For instance, Lu’s parents are willing and able to buy him brand new Nike shoes. Ghost knows asking his mother to do the same would be too much of a financial burden, so he steals a pair—a decision which almost costs him his spot on the team. Ghost’s experience demonstrates how poverty extends beyond material deprivation to affect someone mentally and emotionally.
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Poverty Quotes in Ghost
Where I live. Where I live. When anyone ever asks about where I live, I get weird because people always treat you funny when they find out you stay in a certain kind of neighborhood. But I was used to people treating me funny. When your clothes are two sizes too big, and you got on no-name sneakers, and your mother cuts your hair and it looks like your mother cuts your hair, you get used to people treating you funny.
I wonder if doctors ever cut off somebody’s arm or leg and afterward realize that they made a huge mistake. Like, totally blew it. Because that’s definitely how I felt about low-topping my high-tops, but not until I got to school the next day.
I was literally shaking with embarrassment, like my insides had turned into ice. Ice that was cracking.
I wanted to break the desk.
Or flip it over.
Scream. Something. Anything.
At first, I wasn’t going to do it. I mean, when I went into the store, it was a thought, but only a thought. Not even like a real, real thought either, because I knew that I could just ask my mother to get them for me, and she would because she felt like this track thing was gonna keep me out of trouble. But when I saw how much they cost . . . I just couldn’t ask her for them.
I just told him that my mother had gotten them for me as a way to encourage me to do the right thing and stay out of trouble. Just saying it turned my stomach, because here I was, a boy who was suspended for busting somebody in the face at school one day, and skipped half the day the next because I was laughed at. Then I swiped shoes!
“I been around here before,” Patty said, skipping the hello. “I can’t remember when. But I know I been around here.”
“Me too,” Lu said. “Not really these parts, but my pops plays ball sometimes at the court down the street.”
“Because that’s where we lived. That’s where I grew up. So don’t tell me what I know and don’t know, Ghost.”
