Ghosts as Motif

In each of the stories collected in Where the Wild Ladies Are, the author uses the characters' encounters with, or experiences as ghosts to explore the relationship between reality and surreality. No matter to whom the ghosts appear, the unexpected spectral visits consistently jar the characters out of their malaise and despair. The author, therefore, suggests that a relationship with the imaginary, fantastic, or supernatural world, has the power to open the individual to the magic and wonder of being alive. In "Smartening Up," for example, the unnamed first person narrator has been living in a state of discontentment ever since her boyfriend broke up with her. Convinced her hairy body is to blame for their relationship's failure, she begins dreaming "only of total hairlessness" (28). The goal quickly becomes an obsession which grants her no real happiness. It is not until her dead aunt...