Chapter 33: Who We Gonna Call – Summary & Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The poem opens with an epigraph from Cameron Awkward-Rich: “What is writing but the preservation of ghosts?” Gorman then states that we rouse ghosts primarily for answers—seeking their memory while simultaneously fearing it. She identifies America as a land of shades, but immediately undercuts the supernatural: “Yet there are no wraiths but us.” The speaker reframes the act of summoning, proposing that instead of calling external spirits, we should summon our tender selves. Like ghosts, we are full of things to say and will make do even in a graveyard. The poem concludes that we, like the graveyard, are haunted and hungry. The past is where we pull home, and our forms become fluent again in all things bright. The chapter thus moves from an outward search for spectral answers to an inward reckoning with the self as the true ghost.
Key Events
- The poem begins with an epigraph linking writing to ghost-preservation.
- Gorman declares that ghosts are summoned for their memory, but also feared for it.
- The speaker identifies America as a nation of shades.
- A reversal: “There are no wraiths but us.”
- The call shifts from summoning others to summoning “our tender selves.”
- A vow to persist in a graveyard—a symbol of death and memory.
- Recasting of the past as a place to “pull home.”
- Final image of forms becoming “fluent in all things bright.”
Character Development
- The Speaker (Gorman’s poetic voice): Begins as a seeker of external ghosts (answers from history), moves through a realization that we ourselves are the ghosts, and ends by turning inward toward self-compassion. The speaker’s arc is a microcosm of the book’s larger journey from collective trauma to personal agency.
Themes, Symbols & Motifs
- Ghosts as Memory: Ghosts represent remembered history, both personal and national. We pursue them for knowledge but also dread what they hold.
- America as a Land of Shades: The nation is built on ghosts—injustice, loss, erased voices—but those shades are not external; they are us.
- Self-Summoning: The poem reframes invocation as an act of self-care, calling on “our tender selves” instead of specters.
- The Graveyard: A motif of persistence despite death; a place where voice continues.
- Home in the Past: The past is not a trap but a place to “pull home,” suggesting reclamation rather than escape.
- Brightness After Haunting: The closing images of fluency and brightness indicate a possible transcendence or healing.
Why This Chapter Matters
“Who We Gonna Call” serves as a hinge in Call Us What We Carry. It directly confronts the book’s central metaphor: that poetry is a haunting, but also an exorcism of the self. By declaring “there are no wraiths but us,” Gorman collapses the distance between the haunted and the haunters, forcing a personal accountability for history. The chapter also encapsulates the collection’s movement from grief to agency, ending on a note of brightness. It explains why the act of writing matters: not to raise the dead, but to make the living fluent in their own light.
Study Questions & Answers
1. What does the epigraph “What is writing but the preservation of ghosts?” mean in the context of the poem?
The epigraph suggests that writing is a way to keep memory alive—to preserve voices, experiences, and histories that might otherwise fade. In the poem, this preservation is both a comfort (seeking answers) and a burden (fearing memory). Gorman ultimately transforms the idea: writing preserves not only the ghosts of others but the ghost of our own past selves.
2. How does the line “Yet there are no wraiths but us” shift the poem’s direction?
Before this line, the speaker seems to treat ghosts as external beings to be summoned. The line reframes the entire poem: the spectral figures are not historical others but ourselves. This turns the act of summoning inward, urging self-confrontation rather than projection. It also aligns with the book’s theme that we carry our ancestors and our traumas within.
3. Why does the poem end with “our forms once again fluent in all things bright”?
This final image suggests a reclaiming of vitality after haunting. By pulling home from the past, the speaker and her community become articulate (“fluent”) in brightness—perhaps joy, truth, or life. It implies that engaging with ghosts (memory, history) is necessary to move into light, not to stay in darkness. The chapter ends on hope, not despair.
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