The novel Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein talks mostly about the Saroop family and other families in the town that endured difficulties around the 1930s and 40s in Trinidad such as colonialism, inequality, imperialism, and much more. 

While reading the story we realize that it gets broken up into sections that begin with flashbacks. With titles such as “A Gate to Hell,” “A Small Sacrifice,” “A Father’s Sins,” “A Clean Break,” and “Deadwater.” One thing these sections have in common is foreshadowing. Usually, when we read these sections and read about specific scenes that unfolded in the past, we understand the character’s behavior by reading it and then understand more in-depth why they are the way they are, in the present tense section of the book. 

I’d say that the value in the author sharing these stories that take place outside of the main plot helps to understand where these characters are coming from when they make certain decisions. For example, in the chapter titled “A Small Sacrifice”, the author talks about a woman we then realize is Marlee. We get her backstory on how she grew up without her parents, and how she dealt with poverty and prostitution, the people she associated herself with but yet she still had a dream. We also explore why she chose her name, etc. On page 94 she says, “The hard times are over. The past is dead and long behind. The dream has come true. The long and painful journey ends here.” We see how it finally clicked in her mind that, the picture she viewed inside the wallet would now change everything because she decided that that would now be how she would carry herself.

Another flashback that stuck with me as well as the chapter “A Father’s Sins”. We get the back story about the twins named Rusta & Rudram which almost makes us empathize with them since we see how the trauma that they dealt with their father as children shaped them. They would see so much violence unwillingly since they watched their father do horrible things to people, including their mom and also their father made them do terrible things to animals “Rudra killed a bird one evening. Took it apart piece by piece as if he were a watchmaker digging into tiny hairsprings and wheel jewels. Did it with pride”(page 192). Sadly, their reputation followed them even when they grew up into young adults all because of their father, which can also be part of the reason that they react the way they do in the novel. 

Lastly, this might influence how we understand the rest of the novel and its characters because now the characters aren’t just a title or name to the reader. Still, instead, the character has meaning to them because of their complex backstory. This could be because the reader relates to them with the information they know about the reader, or the reader could just be more curious to understand more about the character. So this changes the entire way you see the novel now, and with “Hungry Ghosts” we get to recognize these characters and their complex personalities.