Credibility in The Night The Ghost Got In Essay

In the story The Night the Ghost Got In, there was two characters that stretched their credibility throughout. The grandfather and mother of the narrator were continually raising eyebrows because their actions were almost unbelievable. Additionally, their actions were funny because they were very unlikely.

The personality of the mother is very caring and protective, since she would not allow her sons to go downstairs to call the police. Also on that note, she told the narrator not to go downstairs to let the police in because he did not have any clothes on and thought he would get cold. Furthermore, the mother had a little bit of common sense to not go downstairs to get the phone, although her way was extremely unorthodox and comical to the readers. When the narrators mother threw the shoe to the neighbors house to get their attention it showed that she was resourceful. In addition, it seems she has an almost carefree attitude since she did not hesitate to break the neighbors window with her shoe. The mother was also very laidback towards the grandfather. When he was shooting the officers gun she did not run to reason with him, she instead made jokes which added to her carefree demeanor and the informality of the writing. This is because in real life when a person shoots a police officer, they get arrested not just given a mean look. The mother is believable because people handle situations differently and throwing the shoe did get the neighbors attention and got the police over to the house.

The other eccentric character in this story is the grandfather. He was portrayed as a quiet old man at the beginning just because he was sleeping in the attic. However, soon as the police headed up to the attic the narrator let the readers in on his grandfathers recent phase. Apparently the grandfather believed that general Meades men was deserting and thought the deserters were trying to hide in his attic. For this reason the grandfather snatched one of the police officers guns after a little scuffle and started firing the weapon. One of the officers was shot in the arm and they ran out of the room. This is unbelievable because these are police officers and why would they not fire back after being shot. This action shows the grandfather believes highly in the military and obviously has little respect for people who give up and run. This character is somewhat believable, but is definitely on the fence. There is a possibility he believes hes back in the Civil War days, since he is an older man and there are cases where they have delusions. The fact that he shot the police officer is also possible, but the story is told in such a light hearted manner it was comical the events the family was going through and how they reacted.