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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ghost Boys, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Progress, Storytelling, and Justice
Racism and the Law
Childhood
Fear
Education
Summary
Analysis
That Day. Jerome is happily playing outside with the toy gun. He imagines he’s a famous actor pretending to be a science-fiction police officer shooting lasers at aliens, among other scenarios. Playing makes his neighborhood seem like a less depressing place. But then, suddenly, Jerome gets tired out. He starts wishing Carlos were there to play with him and worries that, since he’s alone, passersby might mistake him for a “thug.” He thinks that he wouldn’t even try to scare Eddie if Eddie showed up, and he decides to head home.
Jerome’s games with the toy gun are entirely fantastical. He isn’t even pretending to shoot people: he is pretending to be an actor pretending to be a police officer shooting aliens! The utter, childish harmlessness of Jerome’s make-believe—and his imaginary movie with a police-officer hero—underscore how irrational and tragic it was for Officer Moore to perceive Jerome as a dangerous potential “cop killer.” Yet even while playing make-believe, Jerome is aware that people might perceive him, a slight middle-schooler, as a “thug,” showing how racism is already impacting his self-image and behavior.
Themes
A car rushes toward Jerome. He starts sprinting away when two gunshots ring out. Jerome falls and watches his blood turn the snow around him red. Though he can’t move, he sees people approaching and two pairs of boots standing nearby. He tries to say “toy,” worried that he’s lost the toy gun Carlos lent him. He’s not sure what’s happened to him, but he wishes someone would call a doctor. He feels his heartbeat giving out, longs for Ma or Grandma, closes his eyes, and senses his spirit leaving his body.
Jerome’s last thoughts are of not losing his new friend’s toy and of seeing his Ma and Grandma. These are a child’s thoughts, an ironic and horrible contrast to Officer Moore’s assumption that Jerome was a dangerous adult with a deadly weapon. Thus, in its final representation of Jerome’s death, the novel insists that he is a child. This is something Officer Moore failed to see due to racism, as symbolized by misperceiving Jerome’s toy as a real gun.
Themes
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