The Things She's Seen

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual violence and racism against Indigenous Australians.

Beth Teller is the ghost of a 15-year-old Aboriginal girl who was killed in a car accident shortly before the novel begins. She is the novel’s protagonist and one of its two narrators. In the novel’s first chapter, she describes herself as having “curly dark hair, round cheeks, [and] brown skin” (3) like her mother’s and blue eyes like her father’s. Her Aunty June used to tell her that she was a “butterfly girl” (62) with a light spirit who easily left the past behind and transformed to meet the needs of the present. Now, however, Beth feels heavy with the responsibility of caring for her bereaved father. She is very lonely because she is trapped between worlds. Beth also wears the yellow dress she wore when she died. The color yellow, like the other bright colors in the novel, represents the hope and strength of which Beth is capable.

Beth cannot fully move on to “the other side” as long as she feels responsible for healing her father’s grief over her death. Her own feelings about her death are a complex mixture of confusion, resignation, and anger, but she shows strength and determination as she sets aside her feelings and tries to extricate her father from his despair.