Throughout Carson McCullers’s work The Member of the Wedding, Frankie Addams is seen to embody or take on characteristics of a male. McCullers gives Frankie male characteristics to show the difference in power dynamic between males and females throughout the text. During the scene with her father in the jewelry shop, Frankie thinks of the times that she pretends to work on watches just like her father, “sometimes a little crowd of sidewalk lazies would collect to watch her from the street and she would imagine how they said: ‘Frankie Addams works for her father and makes fifteen dollars a week. She fixes the hardest watches in the store and goes to the Woodmen of the World Club with her father… [she is a] big credit to the whole town” (McCullers 310). Frankie subconsciously takes on these characteristics and tries
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She recognizes the differences in privilege between males and females and attaches herself to her father as a way to adopt these male characteristics. Although he works in a jewelry shop, Frankie views her father as a crucial part of the town, “you could see her father like a public person in the town, well known to all by sight and name” (McCullers 309). The idea that Frankie could escape the stigma given to females by taking on the responsibility and work that someone such as her father does appeals to her. The precious jewels described by Frankie in the window are symbolic of the reaping that men create after hard work, “it was a narrow store with precious jewels in velvet boxes placed in the window” (McCullers 309).” The display in the window shows what is unobtainable for Frankie because she is not a male. Yet, the same symbol of diamonds is largely associated with women, showing that the men are considered the hard workers and the women are regarded as the ones who admire the hard work done by the
She recognizes the differences in privilege between males and females and attaches herself to her father as a way to adopt these male characteristics. Although he works in a jewelry shop, Frankie views her father as a crucial part of the town, “you could see her father like a public person in the town, well known to all by sight and name” (McCullers 309). The idea that Frankie could escape the stigma given to females by taking on the responsibility and work that someone such as her father does appeals to her. The precious jewels described by Frankie in the window are symbolic of the reaping that men create after hard work, “it was a narrow store with precious jewels in velvet boxes placed in the window” (McCullers 309).” The display in the window shows what is unobtainable for Frankie because she is not a male. Yet, the same symbol of diamonds is largely associated with women, showing that the men are considered the hard workers and the women are regarded as the ones who admire the hard work done by the