The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers, is a story that focuses on the relationships of Marvin Macy, Cousin Lymon and Miss Amelia. Written in the perspective of a third person as we see an outsider looking in, we can never truly understand the relationship between the three characters as they continue to defy the expectations of the town. Therefore, it is difficult to come to a conclusion of what McCullers is trying to communicate through her characters. McCullers uses symbolism to depict her marriage in The Ballad of the Sad Café as she expresses the grief experienced in her marriage through the café and Miss Amelia. McCullers uses many literary devices to enhance the story and give the readers a better sense of understanding and
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One of the themes seen in The Ballad of the Sad Café, is that love in the form of a force that has the power to change a person’s personality and mindset. For example, the café symbolizes the life of Miss Amelia. “It is a face like the terrible dim faces known in dreams- sexless and white, with two gray crossed eyes which are turned inward so sharply that they seem to be exchanging with each other one long and secret gaze of grief” ( McCullers 3-5). Miss Amelia is described as a boring and isolated person identical to her surroundings. Miss Amelia’s similarities to her environment were apparent in her behavior, “THE TOWN itself is dreary; not much is there except the cotton mill, the two-room houses where the workers live, a few peach trees, a church with two colored windows, and a miserable main street only a hundred yards long… the town is lonesome, sad, and like a place that is far off and estranged from all other places in the world” (McCullers 3). Throughout the novella we see how the town is embodied …show more content…
The relationship between Miss Amelia, Marvin Macy and Cousin Lymon was inspired by McCullers’s marriage. Both McCullers and her husband were divorced, bisexual and had affairs. Just like the story of Miss Amelia and Marvin Macy marriage and divorce, McCullers marriage to her husband was not a pleasant one as a result both had affairs. In the novella we see a love triangle between Miss Amelia, Marvin Macy and Cousin Lymon that results in a betrayal that represents the affair that occurs in McCullers’s life with the composer David Diamond. In The Ballad of the Sad Café the love that Miss Amelia has for Cousin Lymon symbolizes McCullers’s affair as both are forbidden and wrong. Forbidden in the sense of the wrongfulness of betraying your husband and loving your own blood. Bisexuality can be seen reflected in the story as the relationship between Marvin Macy and Cousin Lymon is never defined as there seems to be an attraction on the behalf of Cousin Lymon towards Marvin Macy. The Ballad of the Sad Café is an interpretation of McCullers’s marriage as grief and fear of loneliness are two of the main emotions seen in the characters. In the novella, we see Miss Amelia become submissive to Cousin Lymon’s comfort as she would hold her tongue in order to keep Cousin Lymon by her side, to the point where she welcomed her enemy to her own home to please Cousin Lymon and avoid him
One of the themes seen in The Ballad of the Sad Café, is that love in the form of a force that has the power to change a person’s personality and mindset. For example, the café symbolizes the life of Miss Amelia. “It is a face like the terrible dim faces known in dreams- sexless and white, with two gray crossed eyes which are turned inward so sharply that they seem to be exchanging with each other one long and secret gaze of grief” ( McCullers 3-5). Miss Amelia is described as a boring and isolated person identical to her surroundings. Miss Amelia’s similarities to her environment were apparent in her behavior, “THE TOWN itself is dreary; not much is there except the cotton mill, the two-room houses where the workers live, a few peach trees, a church with two colored windows, and a miserable main street only a hundred yards long… the town is lonesome, sad, and like a place that is far off and estranged from all other places in the world” (McCullers 3). Throughout the novella we see how the town is embodied …show more content…
The relationship between Miss Amelia, Marvin Macy and Cousin Lymon was inspired by McCullers’s marriage. Both McCullers and her husband were divorced, bisexual and had affairs. Just like the story of Miss Amelia and Marvin Macy marriage and divorce, McCullers marriage to her husband was not a pleasant one as a result both had affairs. In the novella we see a love triangle between Miss Amelia, Marvin Macy and Cousin Lymon that results in a betrayal that represents the affair that occurs in McCullers’s life with the composer David Diamond. In The Ballad of the Sad Café the love that Miss Amelia has for Cousin Lymon symbolizes McCullers’s affair as both are forbidden and wrong. Forbidden in the sense of the wrongfulness of betraying your husband and loving your own blood. Bisexuality can be seen reflected in the story as the relationship between Marvin Macy and Cousin Lymon is never defined as there seems to be an attraction on the behalf of Cousin Lymon towards Marvin Macy. The Ballad of the Sad Café is an interpretation of McCullers’s marriage as grief and fear of loneliness are two of the main emotions seen in the characters. In the novella, we see Miss Amelia become submissive to Cousin Lymon’s comfort as she would hold her tongue in order to keep Cousin Lymon by her side, to the point where she welcomed her enemy to her own home to please Cousin Lymon and avoid him