In the book, Swamplandia!, the Bigtree family go through the recent death of their mother from ovarian cancer. Ava, the youngest of the family, wants to be just like her, and she hopes she can swim with the alligators one day. Ossie is starting to go crazy and Kiwi is stressed about the financial debt they are about to be in. The Chief is leaving to go on a “business trip” to find more money for the park. The Bigtree family struggles with the “ghosts” of their past. Some of these “ghosts” are not physically real, but more so figuratively. The family focuses entirely too much on their past grievances, and they do not get the opportunity to see the future. If they would stop looking at their past “ghosts”, they would see their family is more…show more content… The Bigtree family must wrestle with these “ghosts” through facing the debt in Swamplandia, making mistakes when in love, and growing up without their mom. Because Swamplandia is in major debt, the Bigtree family struggles with past “ghosts” haunting them. The Chief must shut down the park and leave to go on a business trip to try and find money for the park. While he does this, he leaves the kids alone to figure out his troubles. Ava, the youngest sibling, wants to be just like her mother and learn to fight alligators, but the park is closed now and she has no one to teach her. She tries to figure out many ways to teach herself so the park can reopen. Kiwi takes matters into his own hands, knowing the park will most likely not be restored. He leaves to go to the mainland to work and provide for his younger siblings. The family struggles to unite in these hard times of working together, but they all feel the same way about missing their mother. Karen Russell writes, “One afternoon Osceola and I fed cookies and whipped cream to the Seths to see what would happen. Nothing happened. I wrote M-O-M. on the Ouija wood, wishing for dark vegetables, punishments”
