43 pages • 1 hour read
Martin PistoriusGhost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body (2011)
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 43-47Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 43-47 Summary
In Chapter 43, “Strangers,” Martin highlights the importance of strangers in his life. He recalls that he was often on the edge of despair, without hope or desire to live another day. But strangers, more specifically kind caregivers who passed in and out of his life, had a profound effect on him. Most notably, Martin brings up Virna, who showed him kindness when she was only a stranger to him. Martin writes, “I realized that families might be the ones who pick us up time and again but strangers can also rescue us—even if they don’t know they’re doing so” (188).
In Chapters 44-47 (“Everything Changes,” “Meeting Mickey?”, “The Real Me,” and “A Lion’s Heart”), Martin chronicles the start of his love story with the woman who would eventually become his wife: Joanna. Martin first meets Joanna through a webcam conversation with his sister Kim, as Kim introduces some of her friends to him. Martin immediately falls for Joanna’s beauty, and soon they start talking online, developing first a friendship then a romance. Joanna invites Martin to come to Disney World with her, letting him know that she is truly interested in him; their love is reciprocal, which is a new feeling for Martin.
Martin starts to believe that their love may truly be what he’s been longing for, the ultimate fulfillment of his hopes and dreams: “I’ve lived my whole life as a burden. She [Joanna] makes me feel weightless” (198). Martin explains that her bravery and boldness in life—and in love—comes from her upbringing, when she learned that life itself was an adventure, as her family went on frequent holidays to Kruger Game Park, where “Joanna and her siblings would roam the bush, searching for lions, wildebeest, elephants, and impala as they learned valuable lessons about the wildlife and themselves” (201). Here, Joanna developed the kind of strength that could help her navigate her love with Martin.
Chapters 43-47 Analysis
Chapter 43 sets up the next four chapters by focusing on Martin’s desire for connection and love outside of his family. He is grateful for all that his family has done for him, constantly walking with him on the twists and turns of his journey, but he recognizes that the love he experiences from people who have no duty to care about him or love him is special. Ironically, the epitome of this kind of love comes from Virna, the woman he first confessed his love to, just as he was learning how to once again communicate.
The following four chapters crack open Martin’s world to new and thrilling possibilities, as he develops his relationship with Joanna. Martin falls completely for Joanna, cautious at first due to his own insecurities and prior emotional wounds, but he soon starts to fall headfirst in love with her. Martin feels seen by Joanna, empowered to be who he is without the expectation of taking on a persona or fantasy version of himself. He says that she has given him a fearlessness, which, “bit by bit she is beginning to pass on to me, and I feel as if I am beginning to soar inside” (202). This image of soaring is an echo of a previous passage, where Martin describes the feeling of being with Joanna as “weightless.”
