Alexandra Tracy September 14, 2013 ENGL 1102- F2 Dr.

Mass Please Select the Gender You Identify With

Love triangles and twisted relationships between lover and the beloved are common in many plot structures in different types of literature. In The Ballad of the Sad Caf by Carson McCullers, there is an emphasis on the idea of unrequited love and abnormalities in characters and relationships. There is a love triangle that is created between Ms. Amelia, her previous husband, and Cousin Lymon. McCullers seeks to address the topic of gender roles and their place in society as well as the idea of love and what that really means. This is done by including characters that physically and emotionally do not fit their gender stereotypes and by creating situations and relationships that are unconventional. The initial descriptions of the characters, both physically and emotionally, serve as a base for the complete reversal of stereotypical gender roles. Ms. Amelia, although a woman, is continuously described in a way that makes her seem progressively less womanly. McCullers initially describes her as having bones and muscles like a man (McCullers 4). The first time she is described creates a picture of a tall, well-built, thick-boned, man-like woman. The fact that she owns her own store, manages her own finances, and lives in isolation also contribute to the stereotypes of males during that time period. On the other side of things, Cousin Lymon, who is a male, is described as having more stereotypically female characteristics. He is hunchbacked, weak, sickly and it is said that he was scarcely more than four feet tall and he wore a ragged, dusty coat that reached only to his knees (6). He is physically frail, which makes him frequently

dependent on others to help him. Even more significant, however, is his emotional side. He is described often as crying and he often needs to be cared for or carried when he is feeling ill. Often in society women are viewed as needing assistance and not being able to care for themselves. By that logic, Cousin Lymon would be the female and Ms. Amelia would be the male in their relationship, effectively erasing whatever conceptions about gender roles the reader previously had. By creating these backwards characters, McCullers is drawing attention to the fact that gender roles should be tested and manipulated and that conforming to the gender roles is not necessary. McCullers seeks to emphasize what standardized tests are beginning to grasp, which is that gender and its associated roles are subjective depending on the person and are more about self-identification than society pressures. The fact that some degree of love has been found in this story between these backwards characters demonstrates a key theme that McCullers was trying to get through to the reader. Although the gender roles in this story are far from the normal stereotypes and the characters are very different and original, love is found. This definition of love is recreated by McCullers in this story. Love is no longer a romance between two people but rather more of an infatuation that does not end happily. By redefining love in this way and effectively erasing gender roles, McCullers shows the reader that previous beliefs about these topics are solely misconceptions.

The image I selected serves as a good representation of the concepts stressed by McCullers. It depicts two men and a woman who are all connected to each other in some way and have love for another. This point was conveyed by McCullers throughout the story. The most important reason, however, that I selected this image was because of the way these people are held together. They are attached to each other by handcuffs, which implies that they are slaves to their love or infatuation. This part of the image does the best job in conveying the definition of love that McCullers created that it is not necessarily something with a happy ending. McCullers effectively conveys the main themes of love and gender roles through character descriptions and the love triangle created.

Works Cited Love Triangle. N.d. Photograph. Bing Images. Stock Vector. Web. 16 Sept. 2013. McCullers, Carson. . Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1963. Print.