Background
The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship is
a psychological story written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In
the story, the writer depicts growth of an ordinary boy (the narrator) to an
assertive young
man. The writer here wants to convey
that one can not be great in life without courage,
determination and action as
envisaged .
Summary
A small
boy has a sight of a
ghost ship in the sea at night in the month of March. The ship is too big and wonderful.
It has no sound and light. It has been moving without any control. The surprising
thing is that it disappears when there is
light and appears when there is
no light. The boy is surprised with the ship
but he thinks he might be having a dream.
The
boy sees the
same ship in the next March and tells his
mother about it. She ddoesn’t
believe him. She says
that his mind is rotting away. As s she tries to confirm she sees nothing except some fish playing in the
water. She becomes sad and worried about her son. One day,
she brings a chair and begins to see the sea sitting on it. She remembers her
dead husband and mourns for him.
She becomes excited and dies. Other four women also die who us e the chair so it is
an accursed chair. Finally,
the chair is thrown into the sea.
The boy becomes orphan and he does n’t want to live with anyone’s mercy. As an
orphan he lives on stealing fishas he has nothing to live on also because no
villagers help him .
In
the next March again he sees
the same ship and then he talks about to the villagers. The villagers instead of trying to confirm regard him
differently and think that he is grown mad . Then, he decides not to talk to anyone about it but try himself to prove . In the next year, he sees the same ship and follows it rowing a boat. When the light of
lighthouse falls upon it, it disappears and the boy is confused . He lits
a lantern and sees the
ship again. He rows his boat near the ship and to his surprise, he brings the ship under control. He finds
nobody in the ship and brings it at the harbor near his village. When the villagers in reality sees the ship controlled by him ,
they are surprised
at seeing the ship larger than the village. Thus, the boy proves himself to be an assertive Youngman. He
shows the
villagers who he is.
Interpretation
It means that if a person works hard to
develop his career without losing patience,she/ he can certainly get success in her/his life. In the light of this message, 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 then to manhood. The ship stands 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 to his physical growth. Both the growth
combined makes him confident about what he says and does. In this way, the story also implies in subtle
manner that an individual needs to ignite inner self before doing any work and
then he/she needs to determine to reach the zenith and dedicate efforts without
losing confidence very mindfully. Success sooner or later is sure to drive home
if plunged into work without breaking
heart.
