Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses enslavement.

The protagonist of the novel is an unnamed narrator who comes of age in the bush of ghosts. Due to the fantastical nature of the bush of ghosts, the narrator exists between two worlds: the earthly world inhabited by people and the unearthly world inhabited by ghosts and other creatures. In the ghost world, the narrator physically takes on many forms, which complicates his coming-of-age process. Tutuola’s decision to not provide the narrator with a name allows him to take on these different forms without being confined to a single identity, meaning he can exist and experience life through different identities other than his own. For example, early on, the smelling-ghost changes the narrator into various animals, such as a camel, to help with daily chores, which enforces unwanted identities on the narrator. Beyond his physical form, the narrator takes on many social roles as well, from a son and a brother to a god and a ghost. Despite changing forms often throughout the novel, the narrator’s internal development relies on how he identifies himself and with which group: the earthly persons or the ghosts.

The novel spans 24 years, and the narrator ages drastically from the beginning to the end of the novel.