My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

        Tutuola's novel started of with a young boy who wonders into a bush of ghosts.  The boy ends up spending many years wandering throughout different towns of ghosts each with their own different culture and identity.  Each town was made up of different ghosts whether it be "smelling ghosts" or a town with "short ghosts" or even a "flash-eyed mother", all ghost had different ways of life. 

        The young man's journey through the bush of ghosts could be interpreted in many ways.  He could of been experiencing European culture for the first time.  His reactions to the ghosts could of been just his own reaction to white peoples different culture and language.  Another possiblility could be that he just fell asleep under the tree where his brother told him to hide.  In the story, the young man's head is chopped off and then replaced.  It is very hard to see this actually happening in real life.  Another explanation could be that the boy could of died.  This could be what life really is after he died.  Tutuola's variety of the different uses of ghosts really made the book more interesting because you were always trying to think up an explanation of what the boy was really going through instead of actual ghost towns.

Woman Warrior

        Kingston's The Woman Warrior does not have a haunting effect like the Turn of the Screw or any spiritual carvings like Potiki, but has a much deeper meaning that does not stare you right in the face like the other three do.  The Woman Warrior is more about Chinese culture, their beliefs, and the differences between the Chinese and Americans as a whole. 

       The differences between American culture and Chinese culture were very noticeable throughout the book.  Americans were refered to as ghosts to the Chinese because of the huge differences between them.  Taxi ghosts, police ghosts, and bus ghosts were just some of the names given to Americans.  Because of the differences in culture and just even the way the two races did things differently, the Chinese called the Americans ghosts.  Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid refered to Americans as ghosts, and how America was death.  When Brave Orchid tried to get Moon Orchid to get back together with her husband, they ended up finding out that she had been replaced with a ghost or aka an American.  Brave Orchid's reference to ghosts made the book much more enjoyable because of the way Kingston used Americans as ghosts to the Chinese culture.