Ballad Of The Sad Cafe And Anthony

The trope of nostalgic and wistful people looking back on their teen years, the good years, approaches stereotype. Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending, on the surface, appears to employ the same stereotype of a wistful old man experiencing a bout of retrospection for his lost friend and the times he once had. The narrator of Carson McCullers’s “Ballad of the Sad Café” in The Ballad of the Sad Café works with the same forlorn recollection of when the town was more alive. Both narrators use two distinct voices to recount their unique stories, weaving their second, lamenting voice between the first narrating voice with grace and shocking fluidity. Although both lamenting voices slow the narration, they provide deeper insight into the narrator’s …show more content…
But simply because it comes up often does not discount it as a completely valid entity in and of itself. In reality, it drives home the point of there being a second voice all the more, providing a deeper insight into Anthony’s character and how he feels about the events of his past. It does not blend the line between the two voices because Anthony’s reflective voice shows itself more often than the narrator in “The Ballad of the Sad Café” uses its lamenting voice. Barnes’s two voices are effective in how much they pop up, slowing the narrative and forcing the reader to slow down along with Anthony and have a moment of reflection while at the same time wondering why Anthony is so concerned with paradoxes of time and providing anecdotes about trees in his former yard. On the other hand, McCullers chooses for her narrator’s lamenting voice to show itself far less often and in much more specific …show more content…
Miss Amelia and the narrator are both those who have suffered harm, Miss Amelia to a greater extent. Not only did Cousin Lymon betray her, but he and Marvin Macy destroyed her property and finally prepared her favourite meal complete with a healthy dose of poison to rub salt in her wounds. Anthony, on the other hand, is the one who caused harm and caused it knowingly and with the full intent to cause harm. There is no other explanation for sending a letter so harshly-worded unless the writer, in this case Anthony, wishes to cause pain and grief. The two characters are at the opposite ends of the spectrum, the one who had a terrible thing done to them and the one who did the terrible