Significance of Ghosts in "Black Eyed Women"

  

“Black Eyed Women” by Viet Thanh Nguyen is a beautifully written short story that explores the idea of ghosts and ghost stories, and how they are more for the living than the dead. This idea is introduced by the character Victor Devoto. Our main character (who is nameless), works as a ghostwriter, basically pretending to be someone else writing about their own traumatic experiences. The main character is writing Victor's story, about how he and his family were in a plane accident, but he was the sole survivor while his wife and children died. Later on in the book, Victor describes what it feels like to be the only one left, “The dead move on” he said, coiled in his armchair, hands between his thighs. “But the living, we just stay here.” (Nguyen 11; 198). In this quote, Victor’s description makes him seem gaunt and weak, almost like he is not fully alive anymore. His quote perfectly describes the circumstances he lives in. For example, the main character suspects Victor hasn’t opened the windows of his house in order to preserve the space his family had lived in. Victor tells the main character that the ghosts of his family are with him every time he remembers the keys or doesn’t forget the toast in the toaster. He is living in a house haunted by both the metaphorical and possibly literal ghosts of his past- his children and wife. Just like he said, he is completely unable to move on from his past while the rest of the world moves on, which is shown when the publisher tells the main character that she needs to write quicker before people forget about his trauma. When he says that the dead move on, I think he might be hinting that the reason ghosts ever stay around the living is not for themselves, but instead to help their living loved ones move on in some way. The ghosts of his family are present to help him move on and to help comfort him, not the other way around.

While Victor is more of a side character to the story, his contribution is highly relevant to the main character’s situation. The parallels between Victor’s life and the main character's life are very similar, both living like ghosts and unable to move on from their tragedies. The main character's brother, as a ghost, swam all across the ocean so he could talk to the main character. It seems like he is there to help her move on, as she is living like a ghost herself. She is quite literally a ghost writer, immersing herself in tragedies like her own and possibly staying in the same mental place instead of moving on in some capacity. On page 16, she is described as being significantly paler than her brother because she avoids the sun as it reminds her of the traumatic events in her past. This supports the idea that she is a ghost and stuck in her past instead of moving on, as she lets the events in her past swallow her and control all of her decisions. This fact only becomes more obvious on page 17 when her brother tells her that she died as well that day, recognizing that she hasn’t really been living all these years. He also tells her that ghosts wear clothing for the living which supports the idea that ghosts are in a way for the living and not the dead. 

Overall, there are heavy parallels between what Victor said about the living never really being able to move on from the deaths of their loved ones and the main characters life before reuniting with her ghost brother. When the main character's brother leaves afterwards, according to the mother, he had said everything he needed to. This signifies that he was able to move on and hopefully find some sort of peace, instead of living in the “past” with his sister. After he leaves, we see the main character have some sort of epiphany where she realizes she must start living her own life instead of writing other people’s stories as a ghost writer. Her brother helped her move on and recognize that she could no longer live the life of a ghost.