{"id":8432,"date":"2014-10-21T22:20:50","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T22:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eoisabi.org\/?p=8432"},"modified":"2026-04-03T20:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:02:08","slug":"carson-mccullers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/?p=8432","title":{"rendered":"Carson McCullers"},"content":{"rendered":"

1917 – 1967<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"C_McCullers\"<\/a>Lula Carson Smith (Carson McCullers<\/strong><\/a>) was born in Columbus, Georgia. From the age of five McCullers took piano lessons and at the age of 17 she moved to New York to study piano at Juilliard School of Music. However, she never attended the school\u00a0\u2013 she managed to lose the money set aside for her tuition. McCullers worked in menial and studied creative writing at Columbia and New York universities. In 1936 she published in\u00a0Story\u00a0<\/em>magazine an autobiographical piece, ‘Wunderkind<\/strong>,’ which depicted a musical prodigy’s failure and adolescent insecurity.<\/p>\n

In 1937 she married Reeves McCullers, a failed author. They moved to North Caroline, living there for two years. During this time she wrote\u00a0The Heart is a Lonely Hunter<\/em>,<\/strong>\u00a0a novel in the Southern Gothic tradition. The title, suggested by McCullers’s editor, was taken from Fiona MacLeod’s poem ‘The Lonely Hunter’.<\/p>\n

McCullers’s marriage turned out to be unlucky. Both she and her husband had homosexual relationships. They separated in 1940. McCullers moved to\u00a0Brooklyn and became a member of the art commune February House. Among their friends were W.H. Auden, Paul and Jane Bowles, and the striptease artiste Gipsy Rose Lee. After World War II McCullers lived mostly in Paris. Her close friends during these years included\u00a0Truman Capote<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tennessee Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McCullers suffered throughout her life from several illnesses\u00a0\u2013\u00a0she had contracted rheumatic fever at the age of fifteen and a series of strokes left her a virtual invalid in her early 30’s.\u00a0Her unfinished autobiography,\u00a0Illumination and\u00a0Night\u00a0Glare<\/em>,\u00a0she dictated during her final months.<\/p>\n

\u2234\u00a0 Read two early works she wrote as a teenager . \u00a0. \u00a0.<\/h6>\n

\u00a4\u00a0\u00a0Wunderkind<\/a>\u00a0\u2190\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a4\u00a0\u00a0Sucker<\/a>\u00a0\u2190\u2022<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this story \u00a0the names describe the relationship between the main characters and how their friendship changes.In the beginning we find out that the nickname of the main character in the story is \u00abSucker<\/strong>\u00ab. When we are told that a person’s moniker is \u00abSucker\u00bb<\/em> we immediately know that this person is easy to fool \u00abAnd Sucker thought anything I did was always swell\u00bb<\/em>. Then there is Pete; the Rock<\/strong>. <\/em>Pete gives Sucker his nickname and he is hard and mean against Sucker. Towards the end Sucker’s eyes change and get \u00abnarrow\u00bb<\/em> and he gets \u00abup this gang of kids and they have a club\u00bb<\/em>. Now the tide has turned and Pete is scared of Sucker. On p.12 Pete – the broken Rock<\/em> – calls Sucker \u00abby his real name, Richard<\/strong>\u00ab<\/em> the Powerful Leader<\/em>. In \u00abSucker\u00bb names help you understand the revolution within a relationship, by making the change in the main character’s name stand out.<\/p>\n

\u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00f7<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u00a4 \u00a0The Ballad of the Sad Cafe<\/a><\/h4>\n

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0is a story of love illustrated through the romantic longings and attractions of the three eccentric characters; Miss Amelia<\/strong>, Cousin Lymon<\/strong>, and Marvin Macy<\/strong>. McCullers depicts love as a force, often strong enough to change people\u2019s attitudes and behaviors.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Listen<\/strong> to the beginning of the book \u00a0\u00b7 \u00a0\u00b7 \u00a0\u00b7 \u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE TOWN itself is dreary; not\u00a0much is there except the cotton\u00a0mill, the two-room houses where\u00a0the workers live, a few peach\u00a0trees, a church with two colored\u00a0windows, and a miserable main\u00a0street only a hundred yards long.\u00a0On Saturdays the tenants from the\u00a0near-by farms come in for a day of\u00a0talk and trade. Otherwise the town\u00a0is lonesome, sad, and like a place that\u00a0is far off and estranged from all other\u00a0places in the world. The nearest train\u00a0stop is Society City, and the\u00a0Greyhound and White Bus Lines use the Forks Falls Road which is three\u00a0miles away. The winters here are\u00a0short and raw, the summers white\u00a0with glare and fiery hot.<\/p>\n

If you walk along the main street\u00a0on an August afternoon there is\u00a0nothing whatsoever to do. The\u00a0largest building, in the very center\u00a0of the town, is boarded up\u00a0completely and leans so far to the\u00a0right that it seems bound to collapse\u00a0at any minute. The house is very\u00a0old. There is about it a curious,\u00a0cracked look that is very puzzling\u00a0until you suddenly realize that at\u00a0one time, and long ago, the right\u00a0side of the front porch had been\u00a0painted, and part of the wall \u2014 but\u00a0the painting was left unfinished and\u00a0one portion of the house is darker\u00a0and dingier than the other. The\u00a0building looks completely deserted.\u00a0Nevertheless, on the second floor\u00a0there is one window which is not\u00a0boarded; sometimes in the late\u00a0afternoon when the heat is at its\u00a0worst a hand will slowly open the\u00a0shutter and a face will look down\u00a0on the town. It is a face like the\u00a0terrible dim faces known in dreams\u00a0\u2014 sexless and white, with two gray\u00a0crossed eyes which are turned\u00a0inward so sharply that they seem\u00a0to be exchanging with each other\u00a0one long and secret gaze of grief.\u00a0The face lingers at the window for\u00a0an hour or so, then the\u00a0shutters are dosed once more, and\u00a0as likely as not there will not be\u00a0another soul to be seen along the\u00a0main street. These August\u00a0afternoons \u2014 when your shift is\u00a0finished there is absolutely nothing\u00a0to do; you might as well walk down\u00a0to the Forks Falls Road and listen\u00a0to the chain gang.<\/p>\n

However, here in this very\u00a0town there was once a caf\u00e9. And\u00a0this old boarded-up house was\u00a0unlike any other place for many\u00a0miles around. There were tables\u00a0with cloths and paper napkins,\u00a0colored streamers from the\u00a0electric fans, great gatherings on\u00a0Saturday nights. The owner of the\u00a0place was Miss Amelia Evans<\/strong>. But\u00a0the person most responsible for the\u00a0success and gaiety of the place was\u00a0a hunchback called Cousin Lymon<\/strong>.\u00a0One other person had a part in the\u00a0story of this caf\u00e9 \u2014 he was the\u00a0former husband of Miss Amelia, a\u00a0terrible character who returned to\u00a0the town after a long term in the\u00a0penitentiary, caused ruin, and then\u00a0went on his way again. The caf\u00e9\u00a0has long since been closed, but it\u00a0is still remembered.<\/p>\n

\n

The place was not always a caf\u00e9.\u00a0Miss Amelia inherited the building\u00a0from her father, and it was a store\u00a0that carried mostly feed, guano, and\u00a0staples such as meal and snuff.\u00a0Miss Amelia was rich. In addition\u00a0to the store she operated a still three\u00a0miles back in the swamp, and ran\u00a0out the best liquor in the county.\u00a0She was a dark, tall woman with\u00a0bones and muscles like a man. Her\u00a0hair was cut short and brushed back\u00a0from the forehead, and there was\u00a0about her sunburned face a tense\u00a0haggard quality. She might have\u00a0been a handsome woman if, even then she was not slightly cross-eyed.\u00a0There were those who would\u00a0have courted her, but Miss Amelia\u00a0cared nothing for the love of men\u00a0and was a solitary person. Her\u00a0marriage had been unlike any other\u00a0marriage ever contracted in this\u00a0county \u2014 it was a strange and\u00a0dangerous marriage, lasting only\u00a0for ten days, that left the whole\u00a0town wondering and shocked …<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7 \u00a0‘The Ballad of a Sad Cafe<\/a>‘ \u00a0[excerpts]<\/h6>\n

\u2193\u00a0 Live story reading<\/strong><\/p>\n