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The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship
– Gabriel Garcia
“The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” is the imaginative story of the development of a boy into manhood written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The story states the illusion of ghost in reality. She describes the growth of an ordinary boy to a bold, matured and assertive young man. The Story deals with a boy’s miraculous observation of the Ghost Ship. At first the boy has been presented as a new man but he gradually changes towards manhood.
The boy is the central figure in the story who used to see the ghost ships many years before, when the boy was very small, he saw a large ship without any lights and sound. One night, the ship passed by his village. It was long and tall. The ship sailed to the wrong direction. When the lights of the lighthouse fell on it, it disappeared and when the lights were off, it appeared. The next day, the boy saw no any sign of the ship and realized that it was his dream. The boy was growing up everyday. In the next March, the boy again saw the Ghost Ship in the sea. This time, the boy was sure that it was not mere dream but a reality. He told his mother and other people in the surrounding about the existence of the ship. However, ‘no body believed him. His mother thought that his mind was out of order. She sent a boatman to observe whether there was ship or not. The boatman saw nothing more than the fish and the hares. The mother of the boy brought a chair from the town, sat on it thinking about her dead husband and then she died.
After the death of his mother, the boy became orphan. Nobody loved and cared him. When he saw the Ghost Ship and shouted, people beat him. Some other women also died who sat on the chair brought by his mother from the town. People threw the evil chair on the sea. They hated the boy as his mother was widow who brought the evil chair in the village. The boy didn’t want to live on the charity (~. He began to steal fish out of the boat. He had to face many difficulties in his lonely life. However, he never accepted defeat. He grew stronger and determined. Isolation and anger made him firm and assertive. He took a strong decision, stole a boat and waited for the Ghost Ship in the channel. He wanted to show the disbelievers who he was. The large Ghost Ship reappeared. He guided the ship to the village church. The cowards and disbelievers were surprised to see the large ghost ship. In this way, the boy proved his adventure and bravery. He was never confused by emotion and frightened by miracle. He faced the troubles and accepted the challenges. In the beginning, the boy was like mud.
Towards the end of the story, he grew into a firm rock. He proved his manhood or maturity by showing the existence of the gigantic (large) Ghost Ship. The story presents how the confidence and determination leads the boy to reach in the destination of his journey to search the ghost ship as he used to see from his boyhood. It proves that the boy’s efforts and sufferings as well as determination support him to reach his destination.