The Ghost of John Wayne, by Ray Gonzales

Historic events have been written by scholars in order to draw an accurate understanding on how an event occurred. However, when history is coerced in a manner that changes history, then it can lead people to have false misinterpretations about people and in some unfortunate cases lead to racism. The short story “The Ghost of John Wayne”, written by Ray Gonzales, is a story about a man who is trying to come to terms with what really happened in the famous Battle of The Alamo. In his trajectory he meets of psychic who alleges contact with Mexican spirits trapped in The Alamo. Through character, plot and structure, Gonzales creates a theme that shows that a feeling of racist superiority exists among Americans—specifically white Anglo Texans about the Battle of The Alamo, hence it is portrayed through the memorial.

First, Gonzales uses character—Tony Marin and protagonist who is also a round character, to promote theme of how a sense of racist superiority exists among white Anglo Texans at The Alamo memorial. Because the character is round he displays characteristic of inner conflict. In the story we can note that his inner conflict wont leave him satisfied with the current history, therefore he goes on a quest to find answers for his book. As a result, the protagonist find him self at conflict with Texans. His interest can be illustrated as Gonzalo writes, “As a writer, he had always been interested in how the history of Texas was written and portrayed and how Chicanos, Mexicans and Native Americans had been left out of the picture”(84). In the previous quote, it is evident that Tony has a great interest in the events that have occurred at the famous Alamo Battle. As a writer, he is seeking to expand his information in order to ...

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...conflict with Texan of people of The Alamo. In addition, the author also uses the plot in order to describe how the conflict led Tony to discover what the environment is like in Texas for Mexicans. Finally, Gonzales also utilizes structure in order to write about the resolution of his short story. In the end Tony attempts to neutralize the man racism and felling of superiority towards Mexicans by buying a book of John Wayne’s—a Texas icon, failure in the movie industry. As a result, the mysterious man felt adamant in his beliefs and decided to continue to be racist by not handing the protagonist his change and potentially whispering something racist to the woman standing next to him as tony exited the memorial store.

Works Cited

Ray, Gonzales. “The Ghost of John Wayne.” Mirrors Beneath the Earth. Ed. Ray Gonzales.

Willimantic: Curbstone, 2001.83-98.