The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship _ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Line-wise Summary

1-2: These lines are in the present. The boy is saying that now people will believe him, but in the past they did not

2-94: These lines all describe past events.

2-28: Many years ago the boy saw the ship for the first time. He saw it in March at night. The ship was very big. It didn't have any lights and it didn't make any sound. It was moving towards the village. Something was broken on the ship, so it couldn't find the correct path in the water. It hit rocks in the water, broke and sank to the bottom of the sea. Nobody heard any noise from the ship hitting the rocks and breaking.

28-36: The next day the boy didn't see anything unusual, so he thought maybe he had only dreamed about the ship and that it wasn't real.

36-40: Exactly one year later during the night, the boy saw the same thing. This time he was sure that he was not dreaming.

40-44: The boy told his mother about the s hip he had seen. She did not believe her son. She thought that her son was becoming crazy.

44-54: The boy's father had died 11 years ago. Since then the mother spent all of her time sitting in a chair and thinking about her dead husband. Now the mother's chair has become old. She needs to buy a different chair. She takes a small boat to go to a place where she can buy a new chair. The boy goes with a boatman. While they are in the boat the man shows the boy that there is no broken ship at the bottom of the sea.

55-56: The boy still believes that the ship is real and that it will come next year, like it has come for the past two years. The mother promises to watch for the ship with her son next year.

56-72: That night the mother dies sitting in her new chair. After that four other women die while sitting in the same chair. The people in the village think that the chair is bad and throw it into the sea.

72-72: Now the boy has no parents. He has to steal fish so that he can have something to eat.

78-90: On the same night in March a few years later the boy is watching the sea again. He sees the same ship. He makes a lot of noise to wake up the villagers to see the ship. But when the people get up the ship has already broken and gone to the bottom of the sea. The villagers don't see anything and do not believe that there is a ship. They beat the boy for making a disturbance and scaring them.

90-94: The boy is angry at the villagers because they do not believe him. He made a plan to show them the ship so that they would believe him.

94-193: Now events in the present are described. The boy is no longer describing the past

94-171: One year later on the same night in March the boy steals a small boat so that he can get near the big ship. He takes the boat to where he has seen the ship in the past. When the ship arrives the boy lights a lamp in his boat. The big ship sees the light on his boat and begins to follow him. The boy leads the ship towards the village.

171- 180: When the ship gets close to the village it blows its loud whistle. All of the people in the village wake up because of the loud noise and come out of their houses.

180-193: The ship comes onto the ground by the village and stops moving in front of the church. Now all of the people in the village see the ship and believe the boy. He feels happy.

Stream of Consciousness Definition:

A narrative technique that gives the impression of a mind at work, jumping from one observation, sensation, or reflection to the next is called stream of consciousness. These varied elements are usually expressed in a flow of words without conventional transitions.

Though stream of consciousness is commonly associated with the work of novelists (including James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner), the method has also been used effectively by writers of creative nonfiction. This technique does not divide the story into sentences or paragraphs. There is no full stop at the end of a sentence and no capital letter at the beginning of a new sentence. It eschews dialogues as they are used in conventional stories. It also has little or no plot and the plot flow is not chronological, but rather convoluted.  There is shift between the present and the past and between the real and the imaginary. You can see the overlap between character's thoughts and the main narrative. Another recurring element of the technique is the repetitive nature of the story. Certain ideas, words or lines have presence throughout the plot with or without variation. The story is one long continuous sentence.

Because stream of consciousness is used to denote the flow of inner experiences, it has now become an almost indispensable (absolutely necessary) term in literary criticism as it refers to that technique which seeks to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind. This technique works best when dealing with abstract phenomena like memory (Look at a Tea Cup), psychological maturity (Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship), mysterious past or historical truths (The Royal Massacre of 2058 could be a fascinating story), and other abstract matters like piety, loss, separation, death, etc. Another phrase for it is "interior monologue"

This note should answer question no 1 of Style and Rhetorics.

Etymology:
The metaphor of the stream of consciousness was coined by American philosopher and psychologist William James (The Principles of Psychology, 1890).

There is no plot in the story in the usual sense, but the story does trace a chronology of sorts involving the protagonists' passage from a time of weakness as a boy without a man's strong voice to a time in which his strength and power are asserted in his strong new man's voice. How are the protagonist's encounters with the ghost ship linked to this movement toward mature strength? Why does no one else know of the ship's existence?

The story is about a boy who finds himself become strong and mature after he sees a ghost ship many times. The more he sees the ghost ship each March on four occasions, the stronger, more mature, and more assertive he becomes.

When he first saw the ghost ship he didn't have a strong voice. He saw the ship heading towards the land and sinking. He was not sure of the event; he himself thought it was a dream. Upon seeing the ship the second time he relates the story to his mother so much so that she tells him that he is going mad, but he somehow convinces her to see the ship the following year. But she died before she could keep the promise. Her death made him orphan but that didn't stop him from being independent and self-assured. He would steal fish rather than depend on charity. He has started to evolve into an assertive man – ' his voice was becoming a roar'. The villagers looked down upon him calling him the 'son of a widow' and that his mother had brought evil in the village. When he raises people of his village after having seen the ghost for the third time he is soundly beaten for creating unnecessary nuisance. But this event has put more courage into him. He again promises to show them what kind of man he is. He is made so courageous that he steals a boat and waits for the ship in the channel. Out of sheer anger and bravery, he maneuvers the ship and finally manages to land the ship in the village so that the unbelieving 'coward' villagers could see the ship. He has finally proved his manhood.

The ship is the product of the boy's imagination, so it is only he who sees the ship. The imaginary ship is the subjective product of his assertive mind. It followed the will inside the boy. At the end, the ghost ship could be seen even when light fell on it. This proves that the boy has total control over his fear, doubt and weakness.

Why does no else know of the ship's existence?

The phantom ship that makes no sound, and that disappears when lights fall on it is the boy's private vision. The boy sees its four times with varied impressions and sensations from boyhood into adulthood. No one knows of its existence as it is the boy's imagination. It is the creation of the boy's mind. When he saw it for the first time one March night he was not very sure of it, but when he saw it the second time he was so sure that he went to tell it to his mother. But when the boatman and he went to the shipwreck site, they saw mantra rays, corvinas, pink snappers and wandering hairs but not any sign of the ship. The same thing happened the third time – the people made no effort to see the unlikely apparition of the ship which disappeared in its annual disaster. They didn't see it so they felt he was lying to them. And then, they beat him soundly.

What do you think is the meaning of the boy's newly discovered ability near the end of the story to control the ship's movement?

The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship provides a very unique depiction of the idea of growth – mental and physical. It is the story of adolescent growth; a journey every adolescent has to make through as (s)he leaves or comes out of their parental shadow to find a  passage to the world of experience – the world of the adults. The vision of the colossal phantom ship is the extension of the consciousness of the adolescent individual. This vision gradually gives leeway for the boy to understand the weightage of the world, particularly to triumph over a skeptical society, and thereby find his own identity and career growth. Nothing in life is insurmountable, and the boy was relentless in its pursuit throughout so, towards the end, he proved the impossible to the villagers – the possibility of meeting one's goal or career objective as symbolized by the ship that he showed to the shocked disbelievers. The boy's conscious control of the ship is the metaphor for every young man's triumph over odd should they work relentlessly, purposefully and with the ego to prove.

What is signified by the story's refusal related to the protagonist's outer experience? How is this refusal related to the protagonist's journey toward a grand triumph in which the private "vision" of the ghost ship is forced upon the attention of the "disbelievers"?

The boy's outer experience is absent. What we find significant throughout the story is the mental toughness of a boy who has gone through a lot of hardships. The story incrementally presents the maturing level of thoughts of the boy as he encounters one episode after another of the ghost ship, a unique imagination only he could see. This inner movement of inner consciousness of the boy finally proves the unbelieving villagers the existence of the ghost ship at the end when he guides the ghost ship right into the village. He finally triumphs over his weaknesses and thus becomes a strong new fearless man. The ghost ship is a private vision because it's only he who sees it and it is this ghost ship that he shows to the incredulous villagers at the end. The ghost ship is metaphorically the representation of his inner consciousness.

Ans. Question no 2 under Style and Rhetoric: The refrain "Now they are going to see who I am" hints towards the rising courage and assertiveness that is evolving in the boy, who in the beginning of his life was weak. The vision of the ghost ship, on four occasions, somehow helps him to kill his weakness. No one believed him, not even his mother in the beginning. But after his mother's death, he continued to see the vision of the ghost ship, but the villagers beat him up and left him twisted for his audacity. Interestingly, this strengthened his mental resolve further until he shows the ghost ship to them in the end. Thus, the private vision of the ghost ship has brought maturity in the boy, and this could lead him to live a fulfilling life. The refrain binds the story together. Each repetition tells us about the boy's mental, spiritual and physical growth. It organizes the story together.

The tone in the recurring phrase is mostly that of extreme anger. He has a hostile society that doesn't seem to believe the boy. The boy is certain of the vision but the people of his village have misjudged or misunderstood him. That is why he was roundly beaten for his extravagant boldness. Other moods this phrase indicates are those of fortitude (Strength of mind that enables one to endure adversity with courage), determination, challenge and unrelenting steadfastness of purpose. This is the boy's mantra to steer himself to his goal.

What made the boy stronger and courageous?

When his mother died of heart attack the boy became orphan. He was called 'son of a widow' by the people of his village (disbelievers), and was badly beaten when he raised false alarm of the sighting of the ghost ship. Though he was given bad treatment he was not disappointed. On the contrary, he drew enough inspiration from this bad treatment. He became more determined and focused in his motive. He sailed a stolen boat and waited for the ship in the channel. Finally, he saw the ship. Therefore, his isolation, anger, indefatigable will power and spirit for adventure gave his strength and courage to find a new voice and position in the very society that looked down upon him.

How does the writer handle concrete, visual details?

The entire story is replete with mention to real historical figures, places and people. There are mentions of historical personalities like Sir Francis Drake and William Dampier who were illustrious English sea-faring heroes. The setting of the story is the Caribbean, which are organized into 30 states. Mentions to the Hindu gods and shops, Dutch Negroes and the woman-flesh eating Malayans are other realistic components of the story. One of the best example of concrete, visual details is the description of the Caribbean day after the boy saw the ghost ship first time -  he saw the radiant fishbowl of the bay, the disorder of colours of the Negro shacks on the hills above the harbor …..' Another interesting description is that of the things the boatmen saw at the purported wreck site – he saw in the glass of the sea, the love making of the mantra rays in a springtime of sponges, pink snappers and blue corvinas diving into the other wells of softer waters ……..' These are realistic visual details that Garcia has employed to give a semblance of reality to the otherwise magical story of a ghost ship.

What is so strange about the ghost ship?

 The ghost ship is seen intermittently once a year at the same night in May. It is sighted four times. It gropes its way towards the channel and suddenly heads towards the shoals and sinks without any sound. It is strange that the ship's compass needle doesn't work at the crucial time and hence it goes wayward.

Summary

The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship is an interesting story written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In the story, the writer describes the growth of an ordinary boy (the narrator) to an assertive man. The writer here wants to prove that one cannot be great in life without courage and determination.

According to the story, a small boy saw a ghost ship in the sea at night in the month of March. The ship was quite big and wonderful. It had no sound and light. It was moving without any control. The surprising thing was that it would disappear when there was light and would appear when there was no light. The boy was surprised with the ship but he thought he might have seen it in the dream.

The boy saw the same ship in the next March and told his mother about it. She didn’t believe him. She said that his mind was rotting. However, she had to send a boatman to confirm whether it was the ship or not. The boatman saw nothing except some fish playing in the water. She became sad and worried about her son. One day, she bought a chair and began to see the sea sitting on it. She remembered her dead husband. She became excited and died. Other four women also died so it was an accursed chair. Finally, the chair was thrown into the sea.

The boy became orphan and he didn’t want to live with anyone’s mercy. As an orphan he lived by stealing fish. He was all alone. Villagers did not help him.

In the next March again he saw the same ship and talked to the villagers about it. The villagers also thought him to be mad and he was severely beaten. Then, he decided not to talk anyone about it but he tried to show who he was. In the next year, he saw the same ship and followed it rowing a boat. When the light of lighthouse fell upon it, it disappeared and the boy fell in problem. He lit a lantern and saw the ship again. He rowed his boat near to the ship and brought it under control. He found nobody in the ship and brought it at the harbor near his village. He called the villagers and the villager’s were surprised at seeing the ship larger than the village.

Thus, the boy proved himself to be an assertive young man. He showed the villagers who he was. It means that if a person works hard to develop his career without losing patience, he can certainly get success in his life.

The story describes the growth of an ordinary boy to an assertive young man. It presents the boy’s inner journey from the innocence to experience and how he gains manhood. The ships stand for the child’s imagination and his encounter with the ship many times indicates his growing vision which finally makes him a strong man with strong voice and confidence. In fact, this story brings out the child’s inner consciousness. The whole story is a psychological study which describes the boy’s attainment of maturity. Thus, the story deals with the mental growth of the child in proportion with his physical growth. Both the growth combined makes him confident about what he says and does.