Edwidge Danticat Ghost Summary

Emmanuel
Kalibala
9/14/15

In the fiction story “Ghosts” by Edwidge Danticat it sets place in Haiti, the story talks about Pascal and his family living in the area called Bel-Air, which he describes himself as “a mid-level slum”. They move to the nice place “Bel Air” because they wanted their kids to finish primary school. Living in this mid level slum, Pascal says that it’s not overrun by gangs. In that area though has one active major gang. His family run a restaurant in the area, but that has also become central to the gang’s activities.

Pascal lives in place where doesn't enjoy enjoy much, through what goes on with the gangs and the family. “Pascal’s parent are shop owners and restaurateurs in Bel Air.” In their restaurant they sold rice and beans,

and fried plantain. Their best meal in the restaurant was fried pigeon meat. Living in Bel Air, Pascal has two other brothers and they take care of another thousand pigeons. They sold them both alive and dead. The pigeon thing began when his father a kid back in Leogane. “He stopped in his eighties, when some soldiers came and collected his birds because it was rumored that he was breeding carriers to send messages to armed invaders in Dominican Republic” when the dictatorship stopped, he started again with the pigeons. In the pigeon business, there was a ritual that was performed for the young men before their first sexual encounter. “They would slit the pigeon's throat and let it bleed into a mixture of carnation condensed milk and a carbonated malt beverage.” The sons had to hold their noses and force down the drink, then their fathers would laugh, and then the fathers say “I pity that girl” while the pigeons headless body was on the ground. Pascals parents didn't approve the message but they made money of it and bought other pigeons with it.

Living in Bel Air there are a lot of gang activities that Pascal does not like including the one that takes over the restaurant.

Working for the radio station Pascal decides he would like to pitch an idea for a radio show based on Gang members sharing their exploits for want of a better word. “Pascal was not at the station during the taping, but he heard part of the show on the radio at home. He could not hear the whole thing because he was helping at the restaurant that night and the taunting of both guests on “Homme à Homme” by Tiye and his crew was too loud. Many of the gang members had known about Pascal’s plan—he had coyly approached some of them as possible guests for his show.” For the show Pascal has a friend named Max who pitched for the show. Max lived in another type of neighborhood. Max started as an afternoon D.J. when Kreyol rap was just beginning to make airwaves. “he overheard the news manager, a stuttering man who had been an inept police spokesperson, discussing a program called “Homme à Homme,” or “Man to Man.” The program would consist of a series of in-studio conversations between gang members and business leaders.” When this happened Pascal knew they stole his idea about the gang

stuff.

“Max said, “that guy stole your idea, and when I tried to call him on it do you know that he fired me?” Max knew they stole pascal’s idea but he tried to tell him. They couldn't do nothing about it because they would both get fired. “Pascal went to bed with all these thoughts swirling in his head, stirred up, he knew, by his disappointment over his show. Now it would be much harder for him to pitch the idea to another radio station. The programmers could always say, “But ‘Homme à Homme’ is already airing. We don’t want to give these gangsters too much of a platform.” He couldn't think of a better idea about gangsters because other radio stations were already airing it. “By the time he arrived at the nearest commissariat, a small crowd of print, TV, and radio journalists—including his boss—were waiting for him. The night before, the police spokesperson, a shrill-voiced woman, explained, there had been a shooting at Radio Zòrèy. Four men with M-16s and machine guns had been seen jumping out of the back of a tan pickup truck.” When the shooting happened in the morning there was a shooting at the radio station. They blamed Pascal for it as being the mastermind behind it, since being the one who came up with it. “After the questioning, he was left alone in a dank cell. That afternoon, his mother and father came to see him. They were allowed to kneel next to him on the floor, where he was lying in a fetal position, and remove his blindfold.” He was questioned all these questions about the shooting but he had nothing to do with, they threw freezing water in his face. Pascal gets blamed for something he didn’t do, that was caused by other people and the gang. “Pascal, could you have done such a thing?” his father asked. He sounded stern, as though scolding his son.” This shows that even his parent weren't not happy with what he did even though don’t know what’s going on. “The lawyer we got for you,” his father said, “her cousin is a judge. She says she’s going to try to move things along very fast.” They had to hire a lawyer for this because they are blaming him for this, even though he didn't do it.

"The officers were laughing even as he hiccupped and sobbed. To his ear, there was no difference between their laughter, their taunting, and that of Tiye and his crew. They could all have switched places, and no one would notice." Suffice to say, it's a pretty no holds barred expose of corruption and gang leadership in almost all aspects of Haitian life, and culture. The whole story is a fairly shocking description of life in Haiti. From what I've read, the gang warfare, bribery and corruption are a pretty normal part of life and if so, some of the quotes in this story are pretty frightening and amazing.