13
“20th Century Ghost” – Joe Hill
Study Booklet
“20th Century Ghost”
Joe Hill
Short Story Unit
Revision Guide, Quote Book and Revision Questions
Name: ______
Alright lads and ladies, welcome to the ultimate guide to Joe Hill’s short story “20th Century Ghost”. This little booklet will tell you everything you need to know and give you some handy revision tips and tricks. Let’s get started:
Summary:
“20th Century Ghost” by Joe Hill is a short story about a haunted movie theatre called The Rosebud. The theatre’s owner, Alec, has always been obsessed with the ghost, Imogene, and is on the brink of losing the theatre. However, Imogene reaches out to all the people who have seen her and they come together to save the Rosebud before Alec passes away.
^^ Remember this and use it in your essay’s introductions^^ If you have a shorter one, that’s fine but writing “it’s about a ghost” isn’t enough. Aim for something like the above summary.
Themes:
· Movies/Films/Cinema (however you want to word it)
· Love
· Death
· Nostalgia
· Obsession
These are the big 5 and this is why they are important:
Film is a key theme as the whole story is set in a movie theatre and films are extremely important to all of the characters. It is what drives them and fills them with passion. It supports them when they are struggling and they all end up with jobs relating to film somehow.
Love is important as Alec shows love for 3 people: his brother, Ray; the ghost, Imogene; and the Rosebud Theatre. He also shows a great love for film in general. The love for these three things is what encourages him to keep going. For example, he is at his lowest when he loses his brother, the person he loved most in the world. He also dies when his love for Imogene and the theatre is reciprocated (returned), as they kiss during the gala event, Alec eventually dies.
Death is extremely important as at times this story reads like a ghost story. Death is an important theme in any ghost story but is hugely important in this one. Death is seen as a cruel and unfair thing, taking the lives of both Imogene and Ray without any kind of warning or explanation. However, it also comes as a release for Alec at the end, as he has nothing left to worry about and can finally be happy when Imogene and the theatre return to him.
Nostalgia (looking back on fond memories) is a relevant theme, too, as a huge chunk of the story is written as a flashback, looking back on Alec’s first sighting of Imogene. The people who call Alec after dreaming about Imogene also show nostalgia for their time at the theatre and this pushes them to help Alec. The film shown at the gala (The Wizard of Oz) also represents nostalgia as it is from the golden age of cinema.
Obsession is also important as Alec is truly obsessed with Imogene. She and the theatre are all he thinks about. Furthermore, several of the other characters are obsessed with the movies, too.
Characterisation - Main Characters:
· Alec Sheldon
· Imogene Gilchrist
· Steven Greenberg
Alec Sheldon is the protagonist of our story. He is the owner of the Rosebud Theatre and was one of the first to see Imogene Gilchrist. He loves Imogene and the theatre and is trying his very best to keep both alive. Even though he knows people lie about seeing her, he doesn’t expose any of the fake stories about Imogene as that would be bad for business. He is happy for people to think that the theatre is haunted.
Alec is a proud man who doesn’t like asking for handouts. He also has an unhealthy obsession with Imogene and this has led to many problems in his personal life – he is divorced from his wife and lives in the theatre.
During the final sequence, Alec finally gets what he wants – the theatre is a success, Imogene has returned to him, and he experiences that Hollywood kiss that he dreamt of back when he was 15. Now that all of his troubles are gone, he can finally pass on peacefully to be with Imogene forever.
Imogene Gilchrist was obsessed with movies when she was alive. From her obituary, we learn that she was in many drama/movie clubs at school and that she could name movies, stars and even one-line-speaking extras.
The beginning of the story tricks us into thinking that she appears all bloody and causes disaster for those who see her. However, the narrator swiftly corrects this and we learn that she only appears to those who share her passion for film. However, the people who see Imogene and speak with her do see her die each and every time she appears. In traditional ghost stories, the ghosts tend to recreate their final moments. Imogene is doing the same. She appears in a film she enjoys and dies before the end. This reflects the way that she died before the end of “The Wizard of Oz”. So Alec does not really witness her dying, but see sort of like a rerun of her death. Like Sky+ for the dead.
She seems to look out for Alec and the theatre and reaches out to those who have seen her when Alec is too proud to. She appears in dreams to each of those people, urging them to save the Rosebud. When Alec is finally ready to pass on, Imogene appears to him once more and helps him pass on happily and peacefully.
Steven Greenberg saw Imogene when he was 12 years old during the film “The Birds” (Alfred Hitchcock 1963). Steven goes on to become a successful director, winning Oscars and various other awards. His films feature big stars like Tom Hanks. The only two characters we see after their encounters with Imogene are Alec and Steven – the two men who go on to be the owners of the Rosebud at different times in their lives. Their encounters are very similar to one another.
Even though Steven has not been back to New England in years, it is clear that the Rosebud still holds a special place in his heart and he buys it after Imogene appears to him in a dream. He puts his heart and soul into renovating the place and returning it to its former glory. Alec passes the torch onto Steven and it is clear from the gala event that the theatre will be just as important to him as it was to Alec.
Setting – The Rosebud Theatre
The story is set almost entirely in and around the Rosebud Theatre. The only part that is not is when Alec visits Steven on the film set. The theatre is such an important part of this story that it is close to being considered a main character. Throughout this story, the theatre is practically dying. Few people visit it and the multi-screen Cineplex nearby is running the Rosebud out of business. Alec fears that it will close and Imogene will fade away within its walls.
Once Steven buys over the Rosebud, it is returned to the way it was when it was in its prime. Imogene only appears when the cinema is almost full, showing that she is happiest when the cinema is successful. When she appears in the final scene, she sits in what is the only empty seat in the house, showing how popular the theatre has become again.
Narrative Style – Film Script – Post-Modernism
The story is laid out in a very similar way to a film script. In a script, descriptions (like stage directions in a play) are written in italics and in the present tense. For example:
Borden and Angier watch Soo being helped down from his
carriage by HANDLERS who treat him with great gentleness.
ANGIER
You're wrong. It can't be.
BORDEN
It is. He carries the bowl between
his knees for the entire performance.
ANGIER
But look at the man!
BORDEN
(points)
This is the trick. This is why no
one detects his method.
Soo hobbles into the restaurant, frail, and fragile.
In “20th Century Ghost”, dialogue is not written in speech marks like in any other short story. Instead, they are written in standard text (no italics) to make them stand out from the rest of the paragraph. This reflects the section of script found above.
The only part of the story not laid out like this (in other words, looking like a regular short story) is the flashback to when Alec first sees Imogene.
By writing his story like this, Hill instantly suggests that his story is going to be about the movie industry (which it is!). This is an element of the literary period Hill is writing in – Post-Modernism – where writers are totally aware that what they are writing is false so reference things related to the content of their work in order to make it seem more authentic.
Quotes from “20th Century Ghost”:
The best time to see her is when the place is almost full. (p.31)
Opening line of story. Hill does not name the ghost yet. Instead he simply refers to Imogene as “her”. This intrigues the reader and makes them want to read on and find out who she might be. We do not learn her name until 3 paragraphs later. By referring to Imogene only as “her”, it creates an air of mystery around her, establishing her as a character who we will never get to know very well and who will be a mystery to the other characters in the novel, too. This, therefore, acts as a hook to lure the reader in. As well as acting as a hook, the first line almost foreshadows the ending as it tells us exactly when we will see Imogene – “when the place is almost full”. In the final scene, she is sitting in the only empty seat in the whole theatre. This line also debunks (proves wrong) all of the fake ghost stories the writer presents to us later in this page.
Opening Line/Hook
Foreshadowing
Characterisation: Imogene
Genre: Horror (Ghost Story)
Steven was just twelve then, and it would be another twelve years before he went and got so famous; he was at that time not a golden boy, but just a boy.
(p.32)
Introduction of Steven. Steven’s encounter with Imogene is the first authentic one we see in the story. This lets the reader see what effect she has on people. It also establishes Steven as an important character. By referring to him as “a golden boy”, it suggests that Steven would go on to do great things in the future and makes the reader curious. Like the introduction of Imogene, this creates an air of mystery around Steven and forces reader to read on. Furthermore, this suggests that Steven will reappear later, once he has become the golden boy. By reflecting back on Steven’s childhood days, this also links to the theme of Nostalgia.
Characterisation: Steven
Theme: Nostalgia
Alec has been working on a theory of what causes her to show herself. He has been keeping notes in a yellow legal pad. He has a list of who she appeared to and in what movie and when (Leland King, Harold and Maude, ’72; Joel Harlowe, Eraserhead, ’76; Hal Lash, Blood Simple, ’84; and all the others). (p.33)
The fact that Alec keeps record of when Imogene appears shows how obsessed he is with her. The fact that he has done his research and has come to a conclusion also suggests that this is something he has been working on for a long time. Furthermore, the inclusion of his list gives us a little example of the list he keeps. So by providing us with some of Alec’s list, the writer can prove how obsessed Alec is with these sightings of Imogene.
Theme: Obsession
Characterisation: Alec
…she was his first and most strongly felt obsession. (p.34)
Here the writer states blatantly that Alec is obsessed with Imogene. Referring to her as the “first and most strongly felt obsession” also tells us that this isn’t just a little fad but that this has gone on for a long time and with great intensity.
Theme: Obsession
Characterisation: Alec
He sees the theatre stripped of its seats, an echoing empty space, drifts of dust in the corners, petrified wads of gum stuck fast to the cement. Local teens have broken in to drink and screw; he sees scattered liquor bottles, ignorant graffiti on the walls, a single, grotesque, used condom on the floor in front of the stage. He sees the lonely and violated place where she will fade away.
Or won’t fade…the worst thought of all. (p.34-35)
All of Alec’s fears are captured in this description. Not only is the theatre empty and ruined, but Imogene is trapped inside or gone. There is a lot of violence and horror in the way Hill describes the theatre here. “Violated” suggests that the building is now being abused by those people who force their way inside and use it for hedonistic pleasures. There is no care for the theatre; it is treated like something disposable and without worth. The theme of death is present here as the theatre itself is left to die and rot.
Alec is afraid that Imogene will just fade away if he isn’t there to protect her. However, he is more afraid that she might be stuck there forever, with no movies to watch and no-one to share them with. The pause leaves the reader with a brief moment to think about what may happen to Imogene if Alec loses the theatre.
Setting
Theme: Death
Characterisation: Alec
Alec hadn’t cried yet. He knew, years later, that he spent that week in a state of shock, that he had lost the person he loved most in the world and it had badly traumatised him. (p.35)