The Great Divorce

Ikey’s attempt to steal apples and bring them back to the bus is his attempt to put his “commodities” plan into action. He theorized in Chapter 2 that creating a demand for such commodities could solve the Grey Town’s problems by drawing everyone back to the city center where they would at least have strength in numbers. By calling Ikey’s strenuous attempt to walk back to the bus with the weighty apples his “via dolorosa,” the narrator sardonically compares Ikey’s struggle with Jesus’s walk to his crucifixion while carrying his own cross on his back. Translations for the term include variations such as “the way of pain/the painful way” or “the sorrowful way.”

Ikey does indeed choose a painful way and thinks himself a type of savior—one who is bringing something to the Grey Town that he imagines will benefit all its citizens. However, even if the sinful human nature of the Grey Town residents were not a stumbling block to this plan’s success, Ikey does not realize the logistics are physically impossible; the narrator will find out in a later chapter that the Grey Town is so much smaller than the land the Ghosts now find themselves in that even a single apple from the tree would not fit there (more on this in Chapter 13).

In Chapter 7, the hard-bitten Ghost’s argument is particularly persuasive because, like any conspiracy theorist’s logic, it has at least a kernel of truth: Large, powerful organizations are discovered doing unsavory things in secret frequently. However, the hard-bitten Ghost errs in giving up any effort to discern truth from lies because of his suspicions. Disturbingly, the kind of shadowy, global cabal that he imagines running the world is frequently associated with Jewish people as an antisemitic stereotype—in fact, he alludes to Jewish involvement in “Armaments Firms” specifically. This is a significant inclusion given the book is set in and was written during World War II, when such suspicions drove a European empire to genocide.

When the hard-bitten Ghost infects the narrator with doubt, the narrator longs to see an example of just one Ghost accepting the offer of Heaven and experiencing the joy the Spirits advertise. Although he does not see such an example immediately, he does in a later chapter. This eventual fulfillment of the narrator’s wish serves as another hint that he is merely dreaming; the meaning of faith is believing without seeing, so when the narrator finally sees a Ghost transformed into a glorious risen Spirit, he gets an advantage granted to no one making choices about faith during their lives on Earth.