They tell you it’s not real, they tell you don’t be scared. But is it really the ghosts you’re scared of, or is it your lack of knowledge about their placement?
In Hansberry’s “A Woman Warrior”, ghosts are present throughout the story and play important roles. However, it can be hard to tell what the ghosts are truly there to represent. Is this idea a mistake or is that exactly what Hansberry is trying to insinuate? From reading the story, we know ghosts are present and that they are always around, but we have no true insight as to their true effects on Hansberry. This is truly an intelligent tactic Hansberry uses to write her story and make readers really evaluate what is happening.
Ghosts usually represent a “spiritual” being that was taught to us at a young age to signify fear. We have knowledge of their presence but have no true experience or interactions with them. Many are scared of ghosts because we are told stories that say ghosts are bad and they haunt you and will do bad things to you causing us to fear our own curiosity of these beings.
In the passage, Hansberry is referring to Americans as ghosts, portraying them as scary beings because she only has knowledge of their presence. Due to stories her mother has told her growing up, she’s fearful to act on her curiosity towards them. The stories that she was told of the “Newsboy Ghost”97 in Chapter 3 (Shaman) and how “He shouted ghost words to the empty streets. His voice reached children inside of houses, reached inside the children’s chests. They would come running out or their yards with their dimes. They would follow him just a corner too far. And when they went to the nearest house to ask directions home, the Gypsy Ghosts would lure them inside with gold rings and then boil them alive and bottle them alive.” (97). This shows that the narrator’s mother instilled fear into her when it came to American people, specifically those of Caucasian decent, making them out to be ghost which affiliated them with negativity.
Although ghosts were symbols of negativity, curiosity always seemed to surface. Curiosity allows her to create her own reality but fear blinds her from the truth. “When we heard the real newsboy calling, we hid, dragging our newspapers under the stairs or into the cellar, … We crouched on our newspapers, and plugged up our ears with our knuckles until he went away.” (97). This shows how their curiosity allowed them to create their own newspaper, mimicking the actual newsboy. However, this also shows how the fear created by the stories told from their mother, prevents her from being culturally in tuned.
How does her knowledge of ghosts affect her views on society?
How does story telling affect the power of ghosts in the narrator’s life?
