Old Ghost is a story about a man called Jim Brennan, who is regretful of what he had done wrongly when he was young. Jim was thinking back in the past, on his seventy-sixth birthday. A lonely old man that lived all by his own, he reminisced about his past, when there are people celebrating his birthday for him. When it was then, he received many birthday gifts and cards, but now there were none. The story finally started when he ‘saw’ Ellen Kelly, his already-dead childhood sweetheart.
Back in many years time, Ellen and Jim was a lovely pair. They laughed, they played, they talked, and loved each other, everything was going on smoothly. Until, Jim abandons Ellen for not giving want he wanted. He then chose a wrong path in loving another girl he met later. In the following year, he brought the girl holidaying, not even saying a goodbye to Ellen. Leaving Ellen, sad, sickly and alone, Ellen was ill and died when Jim finally returns to Ireland. Instantly, Jim matures, but it was too late.
After reading the story, I think Jim was very immature at that point of time. He choose to abandon such a innocent girl who had loved him so much, just because she refused to give him what is had reserved for her marriage bed. Resulting to Ellen’s death, Jim regrets and found out that he still loved Ellen, and even more now, but it was all too late. In his lonely years, when he lived alone, he longed for Ellen. From this, I can also say that Jim does not think of the consequences. If he had not abandon Ellen, he would have been living happily with Ellen and their many children, not longing for Ellen, regretting for what he had done.
Jim perspective of the world is always negative. He seems to hate the world and thinks the world is too complicated. He think that everything had changed as time goes by, and he prefer the past, when it was quieter and children could play on the streets. Jim does not like anything in modern world, which is probably one of the reasons why he is so lonely.
Though Jim had gone through a sad and lonely live, but in the end of the story, Jim dies and joins his loved, Ellen, living happily in another world. Though both main characters of the story had died, they still lived happily together in another world, which I think is also quite a happy ending. At least Jim got what he longed for, and Ellen was happy that Jim wants her now.
From this story, I also learnt that we have to make our decisions carefully, think of the consequences. Or else leading to Jim’s mistake, letting him regret for a lifetime.
