The+Night+the+Ghost+Got+In

[|The Night the Ghost Got In] [|This picture found at www.gettyimages.com]

Short Summary: One night, as the narrator of this story is going to bed, he hears what he thinks is a person walking around his dinning room table the floor below him. He soon realizes that it is a ghost, but when his mother wakes up, she thinks that it is a burglar. Since his mother is worried about a burglar in her home, and she does not have a phone, she throws a shoe into the neighbors bedroom next door. This obviously wakes the neighbors up with a fright, and after they are told of the situation they quickly call the police. When the police arrive, they completely 'ransack' the house, and of course find no one. The grandfather of the narrator, however, is not aware that the police are at the house. In a panic, the grandfather, slaps one of the police officers, takes his gun, and shoots into the air. The next morning, after all of the 'hullaballoo' is over, everything returns to 'normal.' Analysis//: The NIght the Ghost Got// //In// is a story of humor, and of great miscommunication. James Thurber uses marvelous word choice to set the mood and theme in this short story. Thurber uses varioius forms of rhetorical devices, including repetition, restatement, foreshadowing and personification. Using these devices help Thurber to create humor and satire in this short story. The excerpts that I have chosen from this short story help the reader understand and analyze why Thurber does what he does.
 * Quote || Analysis of Quote ||
 * "Its advent caused my mother to throw a shoe through a window of the house next door and ended up with my grandfather shooting a patrolman." || * Gives the reader an insight to story right from the begining
 * Foreshadows what is going to happen as the story progresses
 * Foreshadowing is used to capture the reader's attention, and get the reader to want to read more
 * Reader sees the chaos begin ||
 * "...a rhythmic, quick-cadenced walking around the dinning-room table," "They were steps of a man walking rapidly around the dinning-room table downstairs." "The steps kept going round and round the table..." || * Example of repetition
 * Thurber wants to emphasize that ghost could be heard going around narrator's dinning-room table.
 * Emphasizing this point forces reader to paint a picture in their mind
 * Once the picture is painted, easier for reader to relate to the story.
 * Relaxation is brought to reader, if picture in their mind keeps being brought up.
 * Repetition helps readers to not forget what they 'see'
 * Story feels personable, reader can relate ||  ||
 * "...I didn't see how we were going to call the police-nor did I want the police..." || * Small restatement, but emphasizes a point
 * Narrator did not want police in the house
 * The narrator was uncomfortable with the police
 * The narrator was not going to help the police get into the house
 * As a restatement, it connects with the theme of humor
 * As the story unfolds, police get into the house, narrator does not give them a second glance; this provides comic relief in the story ||  ||
 * "...You'd catch your death," "...I could hear a rending of wood and a splash of glass on the floor of the hall. Their lights played all over the living-room, stabbed into hallways, shot up the front stairs and finally up the back." || * All examples of personification
 * Cannot 'catch' death
 * Lights cannot 'play', 'crisscross nervously' or 'stab into hallways'
 * Paints another picture in the reader's mind
 * Reader gets a clear image of how the police men are shinning lights
 * Word 'play' suggests the lights are moving all over the place
 * Word 'nervous' suggests that the lights move cautiously, and are 'aware' of each other
 * Is another example of the chaos that continues throughout the short story ||  ||
 * "He gazed at me a long time as if I were a slot machine into which he had, without results, dropped a nickel." || * Example of a simile
 * Describes how the police man looks at the narrator
 * Thurber again provides a way for the reader to picture this event
 * Reader can also feel the emotions and tensions between the characters ||  ||

Connecting to other texts and to the WORLD [|Pictures from photobucket.com] [|Scooby-Doo theme song and video]   Although Scooby-Doo might not be 'worldy,' this cartoon can greatly connect with //The Night the Ghost Got In.//  Like I mentioned before, this short story has a great deal of miscommunication. The narrator fails to tell his mother that what they heard from the floor below was only a ghost, not a burglar. However, if the narrator would have told his mother of her mistake, there would be no story. Last year, I had the pleasure of reading the play Cyrano De Bergerac. It is about a man with an overly large nose, and the woman that he loves. Cyrano plans on telling this woman how he feels, until a new man comes into town, who also has eyes for this woman (Roxanne). This whole play could not exist if there wasn't any miscommunication between the characters. Cyrano De Bergerac and The Night the Ghost Got In, are similar in the way that they teach the reader about the importance of communication.  Relating to me: I can connect with this story because on a day-to-day basis between either my family or my friends there is some kind of chaos and/or miscommunication. Although it may be small, there is some form of a 'dramatic' event in my day. Whether its running late to school, forgetting about a test, or hearing a ghost in my dinning room, I can normally look back and laugh, providing myself with humor.
 * 1) There is a large ammount of chaos, and some miscommunication in 'Scooby-Doo' episodes
 * 2) <span style="font-size: 95%; color: #26ab8d; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">This in return provides comic relief, just like in James Therbur's short story
 * 3) <span style="font-size: 95%; color: #26ab8d; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">There is also a lot of drama, and exaggeration in both 'Scooby-Doo' and 'The Night the Ghost Got In,' which adds much of the humor, and is what gets most of the laughs.

<span style="color: #26ab8d; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">Works Cited:
 * <span style="color: #26ab8d; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">I used the American Literature book to find my short story
 * <span style="color: #26ab8d; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">I used the web sites photobucket, and gettyimages for my pictures and youtube for the video and song