46 pages • 1 hour read
James ThurberThe Night the Ghost Got In
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1933A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Ghosts
Whether real or not, ghosts have a very real presence within the context of the narrative. The titular ghost is a symbol for both the threat of the unknown and the lack of meaning prevalent in absurdism. There are also ghosts in the metaphorical sense in the things that haunt the characters: the Civil War and the Thurbers’ fears and paranoias. Like society’s search for meaning in the wake of the first World War, the Thurbers are searching for the source of the noise that they hear downstairs. This again is a breeding ground for absurdism in the text. In contradiction with what they know they hear, they cannot see or find evidence of the perceived threat of the ghost, causing the Thurbers to respond in increasingly irrational ways. The naming of the ghost as “the ghost” acts as a level of meaning-making on Thurber’s part. In the face of the unknown, Thurber can only conceive of the source of the noise as a form of the supernatural.
The Zither
What Thurber tells the officers about the zither symbolizes the family’s absurdity and connects to the subjective nature of truth in the story. A zither is a flat-bodied string instrument with a sound hole in the middle. The officers are reasonably suspicious when Thurber explains that the family’s pet guinea pig used to sleep on the instrument. Up against the officers’ rigid need for rationality, the daily absurdity of the Thurbers presents itself as a kind of foul play.
Light
Because the story occurs mostly during the middle of the night, light acts as a symbol for the characters’ attempts to search for meaning even with multiple perspectives. Light is mentioned three times in the narrative. The first time occurs when Thurber first hears the noise downstairs by himself, when the light from the bathroom enables him to see into the dining room, but not far enough to see the table to discover the source of the noise. The second time, Thurber and Herman are standing at the top of the stairs. Still, between the two of them they are unable to see anything when the ghost begins to run up the stairs towards them. The third time, the light is coming from multiple officers’ flashlights “crisscross[ing] nervously” (36) all over the house. All three instances offer nothing the characters can glean any meaning from, subverting common depictions of light as a source of clarity and safety.
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