Essay/Term paper: The ballad of the sad cafe

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Cliff Notes

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson

McCullers is a story of love illustrated through the romantic

longings and attractions of the three eccentric characters;

Miss Amelia, Cousin Lymon, and Marvin Macy. McCullers

depicts love as a force, often strong enough to change

people's attitudes and behaviors. Yet, the author seems to

say, if the love is unrequited, individuals, having lost their

motivation to change, will revert back to their true selves.

The allure of the different characters, which is never revealed

by the author, seems to indicate that feelings of love and

attraction are not necessarily reasonable or understandable

to others. Miss Amelia is self-reliant, outspoken and very

much a loner. She stands six foot one inch tall and has a

strong, masculine build. Her grey eyes are crossed, and the

rest of her features are equally unattractive. Yet, the people

of the small, southern town of Cheehaw accept her

quirkiness because of the equisite wine that she sells in her

store and for her free doctoring and homemade remedies.

Still, everyone is shocked when the handsome outlaw,

Marvin Macy, falls in love with her. Marvin is a "bold,

fearless, and cruel" man who changes his unlawful ways to

win Miss Amelia's love. Rather than robbing houses he

begins attending church services on Sunday mornings. In an

effort to court Miss Amelia, he learns proper etiquette, such

as "rising and giving his chair to a lady, and abstaining from

swearing and fighting". Two years after Marvin's

reformation, he asks Miss Amelia to marry him. Miss Amelia

does not love him but agrees to the marriage in order to

satisfy her great-aunt. Once married, Miss Amelia is very

aloof towards her husband and refuses to engage in marital

relations with him. After ten days, Miss Amelia ends the

marriage because she finds that she is unable to generate any

positive feelings for Marvin. Several months after the

divorce, Marvin reverts back to his initial corrupt ways and

is "sent to a state penitentiary for robbing filling stations and

holding up A & P stores". Just as love had changed Marvin,

so too did it change Miss Amelia. In the mid 1930's, several

years after Miss Amelia's divorce, Lymon, a hunchback,

comes to Miss Amelia claiming to be a distant cousin. She

readily provides Cousin Lymon with food and board, and

eventually any material object that he desires. The people of

the town grow very curious of her new guest and of Miss

Amelia's hospitality towards Lymon which is contrary to her

characteristic untrusting and remote ways. The townspeople

gather in her store one evening to meet Cousin Lymon.

Unlike Miss Amelia, Cousin Lymon is very sociable and

enjoys entertaining the townsfolk with his patently tall tales.

In a short period of time, Miss Amelia's store is converted

into a cafe where people gather for food, drink, and gossip.

They would discuss Miss Amelia's love for Cousin Lymon,

indicating that they thought love between cousins is

forbidden and incestuous. Her changed behavior, in Lymon's

presence, preoccupied and baffled them. Ever since Cousin

Lymon's appearance, Miss Amelia would regularly wear a

red dress that had been worn exclusively on Sundays. They

also noted that, before he arrived, she would only leave her

house to go to church or to pick up supplies for her store.

While, when Cousin Lymon moves in, realizing that he loves

to travel, she would often drive with him into the city and go

to see "movie-flicks" with him. Before the story ends,

Marvin Macy is released from prison and returns to

Cheehaw. Cousin Lymon, unaware of Miss Amelia's short-

lived marriage to the criminal is fascinated by Marvin's

adventurous life. He leaves Miss Amelia, never having

returned her love, to travel with Marvin. Broken-hearted,

Miss Amelia returns to her original reclusive style of living.

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe enjoyably and precisely portrays

the irrational nature of love in the ill-fated love triangle of

Miss Amelia, Cousin Lymon, and Marvin Macy. None of

the three characters are portrayed as particularly appealing

people, yet they were loved. People love for very different

reasons, " A most mediocre person can be the object of a

love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison

lillies of the swamp." The Ballad of the Sad Cafe Story by:

Carson McCullers Copyright date: 1951