47 pages • 1 hour read
Amos TutuolaMy Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1954A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Fruit Tree
The fruit tree symbolizes the future and the eventual return of the narrator to his home. When the narrator’s brother gives him both pieces of fruit rather than one, his act serves as a promise between brothers and implies that the narrator’s brother will care and provide for his family. Just as the narrator hears gunshots getting closer to him, he enters the bush of ghosts “under this fruit tree,” and he declares the tree itself to be a sign, specifically “the ‘Future Sign’” (5). Although the narrator isn’t yet aware of the tree’s importance, he recognizes that the safety it provides for him in this moment holds a promise for his future, like the promise his brother makes to him through the fruit. By calling the tree a “future sign,” the novel asserts not only the importance of this tree but foreshadows its role in the narrator’s reunification with his family. By beginning and ending the novel with this tree, Tutuola creates a circular plot that allows the narrator to begin and end his journey in the bush of ghosts in the same place. When he is back at the tree after being in the bush for 24 years, the narrator is kidnapped by slave raiders, connecting back to the initial threat that led him to the tree in the first place. The fruit tree illustrates the beginning of journeys for the narrator: his first journey inside the bush of ghosts and his second journey navigating the human world during colonialism and the slave trade.
“Bad” and “Good”
The motif of “bad” and “good” exists in the novel from beginning to end, illustrating the narrator’s understanding of morality and ethics. For the narrator, the human condition is defined by bad and good. He first understands “the meaning of ‘bad’ because of hatred” as a young boy due to the hatred his father’s other wives and daughters have for the narrator, his brother, and his mother (1). However, he does not know what to do with these concepts as his understanding of “bad” is very simplified and limited due to having few experiences in the world. As the narrator attempts to navigate the human world, his inability to understand bad and good propels him to enter the bush of ghosts. Throughout his experiences in the bush of ghosts, he develops his understanding of bad and good through the physical representation of other characters and beings. For example, the smelling-ghost’s intention of enslaving the narrator for his gain manifests in his physical appearance of being grotesque and riddled with smells and insects. For the narrator, the smelling-ghost is “bad” because of his appearance, a simplification of good and bad that the narrator leans on to help him navigate the ghost world. As he grows older, the concepts of bad and good are complicated when he meets the Super-Lady, who introduces him to the town of her father. In this town, many earthly and ghostly wizards and witches meet regularly, and the narrator recognizes many of them from his own town. However, the Super-Lady reveals that these characters “have no good thoughts except evil thoughts both day and night” despite “worshipping the heavenly God” (115). The Super-Lady’s words help expand the narrator’s concept of bad and good, making clear that characters’ internal motivations do not always manifest in their appearances.
Traditional African Foods
In the novel, the use of traditional African food symbolizes familiarity, comfort, and identity for the narrator. These foods include rice, potatoes, yams, and fowl. When the narrator encounters the first three ghosts in the bush, the “smell of African food’ entices him to enter the home and choose the copper ghost because of his preference for his “native food most” (9). Right away, these foods produce a positive sensory effect on the narrator, which allows him to find comfort when he is away from home. The narrator chooses the copper ghost over the others because he feels the most connected to his home when the copper ghost offers him this food. As the novel progresses, the times that the narrator feels the most comfortable and secure are when he eats familiar foods, such as cooked yams as a cow, or fowl with the Super-Lady, because they remind him of his home as well as his human identity. The use of food grounds the narrator as it reconnects him to a sense of security and familiarity throughout the text.
