Ghost by Jason Reynolds Book Review

In an excerpt from the novel Ghost by Jason Reynolds, it tells the story of Castle who beats the Defender’s best runner. The main character, Ghost, notices a young man called Lu setting the fastest time of all the track team members. Ghost chooses to race Lu despite the fact that it is a private practice and he is not a member of the squad. The novel's author employs indirect characterisation in the form of words, thoughts and feelings, and other characters' reactions to demonstrate Ghost's stubbornness, directness, and boldness.

Through indirect characterization the reader learns that Ghost is stubborn and straightforward, for wanting to beat Lu in a race even though most people think he won’t win.  First, Ghost can be described as being stubborn through his thoughts and feelings. For example, after he beat Lu in a race and the Coach asked  him to join the team, instead of accepting he thought, “Not cool. Not really. I mean, track? And who was this man?” (Reynolds 37). This shows that Castle thought that joining track wasn’t all that and he only did it for fun.  This evidence demonstrates why Ghost can be seen as stubborn because of the way he thought when the coach invited him to join. Second, Ghost displays how straightforward he is through his way of speech. For instance, while coach tried to get Ghost to join the team by telling him he’d be able to dunk, Ghost says, “You think I’m stupid?” I looked at him sideways. Ain’t no way I could be dunking in a year. I never heard of no eighth graders that can dunk.” (Reynolds 33). This evidence exemplifies that Ghost says what's on his mind, rather than thinking before he speaks. The evidence shows how Ghost is stubborn  because of what he said to the coach about his claims. Lastly, Castle can be both of these two character traits as said in the beginning because of knowing he could beat Lu. This can be backed up, since he wouldn’t have been able to do this if he wasn’t straightforward and stubborn. This presents Castle being stubborn because he doesn’t leave the track after Coach has told him to. This evidence displays how Coach Brody acts towards Ghost, eventually compromising to show how difficult it was to deal with ghost. Even though the author never explicitly states character traits of Castle, his character traits can be discovered through indirect characterization. 

James Reynolds uses indirect characterization in order to show how Ghost is persistent and daring. After Ghost beats Lu in the race, Lu is confused and flustered about the result. When Coach Brody tries to invite Castle to the team, he thinks of every way to try and shut him down, but he eventually gives in. James Reynolds uses indirect characterization in his novel Ghost in order to show the character traits of the main character Castle Cranshaw.