Section # 1250
Carson McCullers wrote and published ’’The Ballad of the Sad Café’’ in 1951. The story revolves around three main characters. These characters are Miss Amelia Evans, her former husband and Cousin Lymon. In this paper, I will analyze only one passage from the book. What makes this passage interesting is the style of writing. The author tells us his story as a flask back. He uses the present tense in the first few paragraphs, but then switches to the past tense for the rest of the passage. However, this is not the only thing that makes this passage interesting.
The story happens in a café which has been closed for a long time. The owner of this café is Miss Amelia Evans who is the richest woman in the town. This is a small town probably located in the southern area. The southern location of the town can be assumed from the following line: “The winters here are short and raw, the summers white with glare and fiery hot” (McCullers, p.3). Longer summers and short winters are typical for southern climate.
The town itself is a lifeless and a dull place. It is so small that almost everything including trees can be counted. The writer closely describes this in the following sentence: “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” (McCuller, p. 3). The monotony of life in this town is reflected through its residents. The people who live here are bored and stagnant because there is usually not much for them to do. “If you walk along the main street on an August afternoon there is nothing whatsoever to do” (McCuller, 3). The only entertainment for the town residents is listening to a chain gang. The writer uses a positive tone to describe this activity: “when your shift is finished, there is absolutely nothing to do; you might as well walk down to the Forks Falls Road and listen to the chain gang”(McCuller, p. 4).
As the story progresses, many descriptions of the town are given to the readers. This is one of the examples that support this claim: “The largest building, in the very center of the town, is boarded up completely and leans so far to the right that it seems bound to collapse at any minute. The house is very old” (McCuller, p.3). The central building symbolizes the overall atmosphere. It is inclined, abrupt and lonely. Even the landscape outside is shabby. “The building looks completely deserted. Nevertheless, on the second floor there is one window which is not boarded”(McCulluer, p. 4). All of this might lead to the conclusion that no one lives here. However, that is not true.
A mysterious woman lives in this largest building. Sometimes, she stands on the second floor’s window in order to look down at the town and check if there is something interesting going on. “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”(McCuller, p. 4). She looks as she has come from a nightmare. She is frightening and dodgy. She has a pair of crossed eyes which is a characteristic that stands out in her description. The author foreshadows the appearance of this mysterious woman in the following line: “Her hair was cut short and brushed back from the forehead, and there was about her sunburned face a tense, haggard quality. She might have been a handsome woman if, even then, she was not slightly cross-eyed”(McCuller, p. 5). However, this is a description of Miss Amelia Evans. Both Miss Evans and the mysterious woman have crossed eyes as a common denominator which might suggests that they are the same person.
Miss Amelia Evans is portrayed as a person who does not like to interact with others. “Except for this queer marriage, Miss Amelia had lived her life alone. Often she spent whole nights back in her shed in the swamp, dressed in overalls and gum boots, silently guarding the low fire of the still” (McCuller, p. 5). She is a woman who operates this café that still provides the best liquor in the county. However, she does not use the café to socialize. Instead, she uses this place to come in contact with the local residents only to take advantage of their drinking in order to make a profit. Miss Amelia Evans used to be a healthy, muscular and somewhat handsome woman. However the time has made her a colorless, grey, and lifeless woman identical to her surroundings, which is how she looks at the moment.
The café is a symbol of Miss Amelia Evans’s life. It used to be a lively place that was once full of people. However, due to Miss Amelia Evans’ misfortune, the café closed. In addition to this, the largest building in town was slowly abandoned. In conclusion, all of these factors made the author to use a very depressing tone of expression in his descriptions.
Works Cited
McCullers, Carson. Collected Short Stories, and the Novel: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1955. Print.
