Ghosts Symbol Analysis

Ghosts symbolize the responsibility a person has to do well by others—and the haunting guilt that arises when people fail to live up to their social and interpersonal obligations. Jonathan Alkaitis and Paul are the two characters who have the most direct interaction with ghosts, but many other characters are plagued by haunting feelings of regret and remorse at not living up to their obligations.

While Jonathan Alkaitis spends the rest of his days in prison for his role in a massive Ponzi scheme that put many of his unsuspecting investors in financial ruin, he is visited by the ghosts of the investors (some of whom he also considered friends) who have died in the aftermath of the scheme’s collapse. Some of these people died as a direct result of the scheme: for example, Yvette Bertolli, a former investment associate who was quite elderly when the fraudulent scam was made public, died of a heart attack when she learned that she lost over $300 million in her investors’ funds.  Jonathan is also visited by the ghost of Faisal, who committed suicide in the aftermath of the scheme’s collapse. Before investing with Jonathan, Faisal’s family had regarded him as something of a disappointment, and the financial success he began to see after making his investments allowed him to redeem himself in his family’s eyes. Given this context, it’s logical to posit that Faisal committed suicide out of shame and despair when he realized he’d lost not only all his money, but his family’s respect as well. The circumstances of Bertolli’s and Faisal’s deaths are such that they may be seen as the direct or indirect result of Alkaitis’s fraud. It follows, then, that Alkaitis is seeing the ghosts of these investors because he feels—consciously or unconsciously—that he bears some responsibility for their fates. Their ghosts, therefore, symbolize not only Jonathan’s guilt, but his failure to uphold his personal responsibility to others, placing his selfish desire for wealth above his obligations to Faisal and Bertolli as friends and fellow humans.

Ghosts torment Paul, too. Early in the novel, Paul believes he sees the ghost of Charlie Wu, a Canadian musician to whom he gave the bad ecstasy that resulted in Charlie’s overdose and death.  Although Paul is never caught and brought to justice for his actions, the guilt of knowing he was directly involved in Charlie’s death is something that plagues him for the rest of his life, and he sees visions of Charlie at many points throughout his life, the first time being at a Vancouver nightclub he visits with Vincent and Melissa on New Year’s Eve, 1999. Later in life, Vincent’s ghost visits Paul as well. Although Paul had nothing to do with Vincent’s death, he wronged Vincent in a number of ways throughout their lives, unjustly resenting her for his parents’ breakup (Paul’s mother and father divorced as a result of the affair and resultant pregnancy that occurred between Paul’s father and Vincent’s mother), and he spends his life hurting Vincent in conscious and subconscious ways in a misguided effort to get even with her. Throughout the novel, Paul alternates between condemning what he knows is an unfair hatred and poor treatment of Vincent and justifying those feelings. Ultimately, Paul fails to fully acknowledge Vincent’s blamelessness, correct his misguided hatred of her, and actively work toward treating her with more respect. As a result, they become estranged, and, when Vincent dies, much of the hurt and issues that tormented their relationship remain unresolved. Thus, when Paul is visited by Vincent’s ghost, it's a manifestation of these unresolved issues, as well as of Paul’s failure to live up to the responsibility he had to do well by Vincent.