Ghost follows its titular character, seventh-grader Ghost, as he begins to run for a local track team. The first time the novel describes anyone running, it is in a flashback in which Ghost and his mother, Terri, flee from Ghost’s father who is drunk and firing a pistol at them. Because of this experience, Ghost thinks of running as a survival mechanism—running means running away from someone or something. As such, at the start of the novel, running is tightly interwoven with Ghost’s trauma. Three years after the incident with his father, Coach Brody, a local track coach, recruits Ghost to run for his team, the Defenders. Over the course of the novel, Coach Brody and Ghost’s new teammates teach him that it is important to run for a positive purpose rather than attempting to run away from one’s problems. For instance, Patty, one of Ghost’s teammates, decided to take up running because her biological mother lost her legs to diabetes. Patty runs to stay healthy and avoid a similar fate; her mother’s condition makes her appreciate that running is something she is still able to do. Just like Ghost, Patty’s reason for running relates to trauma. However, she has found a way to put a positive spin on it, and the novel suggests this is good for her both mentally and physically.
At the end of the novel, as Ghost is preparing to run his first race, he feels overwhelming appreciation because of the many people who have come to support him. He realizes that running for the Defenders has given him a new support system and an entirely new outlook on life. As such, even though his race starts with a gunshot—the same sound he associates with childhood trauma—Ghost feels like he is running for a purpose; that is, he is finally running toward something rather than away from it. Ultimately, then, the novel argues that running can be more than a flight mechanism and transform into a meaningful experience that creates positive memories rather than negative ones.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Running and Trauma ThemeTracker
Running and Trauma Quotes in Ghost
It was three years ago when my dad lost it. When the liquor made him meaner than he’d ever been. Every other night he would become a different person, like he’d morph into someone crazy, but this one night my mother decided to finally fight back.
I haven’t seen my dad since. Ma said the cops said that when they got to the house, he was sitting outside on the steps, shirtless, with the pistol beside him, guzzling beer, eating sunflower seeds, waiting. Like he wanted to get caught. Like it was no big deal. They gave him ten years in prison, and to be honest, I don’t know if I’m happy about that or not. Sometimes, I wish he would’ve gotten forever in jail. Other times, I wish he was home on the couch, watching the game, shaking seeds in his hand. Either way, one thing is for sure: that was the night I learned how to run.
And the coach kept saying stuff like, “Lu’s still the one to beat,” which was kinda pissing me off because . . . I don’t know. It just made me think about this kid Brandon at school, who always . . . ALWAYS picked on me. Not even just me, though. He picked on a lot of people, and didn’t nobody ever do nothing about it. They just said stupid stuff like, Can’t nobody beat him. Same kind of rah-rah this bowling-ball-head coach was kicking about this kid, Lu. It's just . . . ugh. I mean, he was fast, but honestly, he wasn’t that fast.
“Who you run for?” he asked. What? Who did I run for? What kind of question was that?
“I run for me. Who else?” I replied.
And Red, well, I’ve known him for a long time. We’ve been cool since fifth grade, mainly because even though we’ve never really talked about nothing bad, we both kinda knew something bad had happened to us. Like, for me, the best way to describe it is, I got a lot of scream inside.
“I ain’t saying that. I’ve definitely been scared of somebody before. Real scared,” I added, thinking about how loud a gun sounds when it’s fired in a small room. “That’s how come I know how to run so fast. But now, the only person I’m scared of, other than my mother . . . I mean, like I do things, I know ain’t cool, but even though I know they ain’t cool, like beating on Brandon, all of a sudden I’m doing it anyway, y’know? So I guess . . . I guess the only other person I’m really scared of, maybe . . . is me.”
“Usain ran a nine-five-eight,” Coach said. […]
“But that ain’t even that fast,” I said. Plus it just didn’t seem like one hundred meters was all that long. I mean, I had just run it the day before in what had to be six or seven seconds. Couldn’t have been more than eight.
“You know who’s really tired, son? Your principal.” Coach put his hands up, palms facing me as if to stop me from even thinking about responding. Then he continued, “No, no. You know who’s really, really tired? Your mother. She’s so tired. So tired. And she’s gonna be even more exhausted when she hears about your suspension.”
“And as of yesterday, this kid. Castle Cran—”
“Ghost,” I cut him off before he could even get the shaw out. “Just call me Ghost.”
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.
So I banged. Still nothing. Then I started trippin’. Like how when you at the swimming pool on the hottest day of summer, and you jump in and it’s cool, and then you take one step too far and suddenly you’re in the deep end, and things ain’t so cool no more. Because you can’t swim. That’s how I felt. Like I was drowning. Like I was filling up with water. Like this place, this weird little room that had saved my life, now felt like it was gonna take it.
“My dad’s in jail for trying to shoot me and my mother,” I blurted. And before anyone could say anything, I held my hands out for my utensils.
And it felt good to feel like one of the teammates. Like I was there—really, really there—as me, but without as much scream inside.
My tongue had suddenly turned into a stone in my mouth. I couldn’t breathe, like I had just finished running ladders, like I was going to yak up every sunflower I had ever eaten, and if there was a sunflower growing in me, it was definitely dying right then.
The sound of the gun cocking. The sound of the door unlocking. Heart pounding. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Silence. This. Is. It.
And then . . . BOOM!
