43 pages • 1 hour read
Martin PistoriusGhost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body (2011)
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 54-64Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 54-64 Summary
In Chapter 54, Martin and Joanna enjoy the sweetness of being together for the first time. Martin describes the feeling as being “drunk, intoxicated by everything that is happening to me for the first time” (229). While their Christian faith keeps them from being sexually intimate with each other, they kiss, touch, and fall headfirst into their love for each other. Martin feels completely accepted by Joanna, as she calls him her “liefie” (“my love” in Afrikaans). The rest of their trip in London includes some difficult moments, such as Martin’s inability to choose a pair of shoes for himself, and other exhilarating moments, such as dancing at night in Trafalgar Square.
In Chapter 57, as the trip concludes, Martin feels the pain of separation from the woman he loves. When he returns to South Africa, his father expresses frustration with him for not having kept in touch with the family while he was in London with Joanna. As Martin starts to recognize that his life will change, so will his relationship—and dependence—to his parents. Soon after this conversation, Martin tells his parents that he plans to ask Joanna to marry him. In Chapter 60, “Up, Up, and Away,” Martin proposes to Joanna in a hot air balloon. As Martin recalls the moment, he writes, “there are tears in Joanna’s eyes as I hold it [the ring] up to her—a pool of gold hanging by a thread that glints in the early morning light […] ‘Yes, my liefie […] I will be proud to be your wife” (257).
In the four remaining chapters, Martin says good-bye to his past. As he clears his things from his parents’ house, he confronts the pain of what he lost once again, his parents’ pain palpable as he looks through childhood photos. In addition to the pain of his lost childhood, he and Joanna also work through his pain of trauma. As Martin puts it, “A dam has been broken inside as I’ve confronted the past” (266). As Martin and Joanna prepare for their life together, in which they’ll move to the UK together, they also prepare for their wedding. In the final chapter, Martin reflects on everything he has left behind, feeling God’s presence in the church, as he waits for Joanna to walk down the aisle. He closes the book with his anticipation of seeing his bride: “I will not look back today. It is time to forget the past. All I can think of is the future. She is here. She is walking towards me” (274).
Chapters 54-64 Analysis
In the final chapters of the book, Martin and Joanna’s love blossoms into full-fledged commitment. Their love transitions from the frustrations of online conversations to the tangibility of real, physical love. Martin experiences unconditional love apart from his family, as Joanna accepts Martin exactly for who he is, without any expectation that his physical condition may someday change. Martin fully immerses himself into this new life with the woman he loves, having moved onto a new chapter, one that he thought was completely impossible, unfathomable in the care center where he experienced extreme isolation and loneliness. As Martin takes inventory of his memories from the past, going through pictures at his parents’ house, he bids farewell to the childhood he had, but will never truly remember: “While the child who loved Legos is just a stranger to me, he is all too real for my parents. He is the child they loved and lost” (264). In the final images of the book, this child has become a man, waiting for his bride to walk down the aisle, opening up a new world of possibilities to Martin, who once saw himself as the “ghost boy.”
