 
They're all referring to the same thing, except for the second one, ${$ginger[2]}[1]. That one is the same as $ginger[2][1], whose base is the array @ginger, rather than the scalar $ginger.
First, construct the hash structure:
my @gilligan = qw(red_shirt hat lucky_socks water_bottle); my @professor = qw(sunscreen water_bottle slide_rule batteries radio); my @skipper = qw(blue_shirt hat jacket preserver sunscreen); my %all = ( "Gilligan" => \@gilligan, "Skipper" => \@skipper, "Professor" => \@professor, );
Then pass it to the first subroutine:
check_items_for_all(\%all);
In the subroutine, the first parameter is a hashref, so dereference it to get the keys and the corresponding values:
sub check_items_for_all {
  my $all = shift;
  for my $person (sort keys %$all) {
    check_required_items($person, $all->{$person});
  }
}From there, call the original subroutine:
sub check_required_items {
  my $who = shift;
  my $items = shift;
  my @required = qw(preserver sunscreen water_bottle jacket);
  my @missing = ( );
  for my $item (@required) {
    unless (grep $item eq $_, @$items) { # not found in list?
      print "$who is missing $item.\n";
      push @missing, $item;
    }
  }
  if (@missing) {
    print "Adding @missing to @$items for $who.\n";
    push @$items, @missing;
  }
} 
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