Laura Enescu Unit 3

Love and Betrayal

Lesson 11 11) a) The three characteristics of Southern Gothic tradition, we can find in the short story Sucker, are: 1) Theme of love and loss. The main character, Pete, is falling in love with the most popular girl in school, Mabelly. At the beginning, she did not even notice him, despite the fact that she was sitting next to him in class. After a while, she started to pay attention to him and to hang out with Pete. Even thought, Pete was in love with her, Mabelly did not give any sign of sharing his feelings. She probably considered him a moment friend or a person she can use. Suddenly, she started to ignore him and to hang out with a football player, which was popular as well. She even told Pete that she never cared about him and that she wanted him to leave her alone, words that hurt Pete really bad. Pete thought she had her love, but he lost her. 2) Theme of imprisonment and escape. After Sucker had enough of Petes behavior, he takes over Petes room with his friends, and uses it as a hideout or clubroom. Pete finds himself in the position of being trapped in his own room. He cannot study there properly, he cannot have his quiet moments and he finds his escape at the drug store, smoking, doing nothing and hanging out with the folks that are killing their time there. 3) Theme of innocence. At the beginning of the story, Sucker is a timid twelve years old, who wishes to be seen by Pete. He shows that he had lots of trust in Pete, and even if he realized that not all Petes actions and words are worst trusted, he still admires his cousin. He does all what Pete tells him to do, because he thinks that this way, Pete will like him and they will become real friends.

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b)

Sucker as a real person

After reading the story Sucker, by Carson McCullers, I personally believe that Sucker it is a real person. Sucker character and the relationship between him and Pete, shows how teenagers act with one another. This comportment it is not unusually or rare, it is everywhere. The hard truth is that teenagers are mean and they can do bad stuff to other teenagers, especially if they find them weaker, nave or younger. At the beginning of the story, we find out that Sucker is Petes cousin and he had lived with Pete since he was a baby. His parents died in a wreck and Petes family took him in. Also, he stayed in Petes room, probably because of the lack of space, since Pete had other younger sisters. Half the time I used to forget that Sucker isn't my brother. He's my first cousin but practically ever since I remember hes been in our family. You see his folks were killed in a wreck when he was a baby. To me and my kid sisters he was like our brother. Petes sister saw Sucker as a brother as well, which make Sucker a real person. Sucker used to adore every single thing about his cousin. He saw him as a role model and he tried to do whatever was asked to, even if he knew it was silly or just a prank, just for the sake of being liked by his cousin, which was like a bigger brother for him. Sucker used to always remember and believe every word I said. That's how he got his nickname. *+And the funny thing was that no matter how many times he got fooled he would still believe me. Not that he was dumb in other waysit was just the way he acted with me. He would look at everything I did and quietly take it in. When his cousin started to pay attention to him, he
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was so happy that he talked almost all night. Sucker shared the room with no complains, he used his cousin smaller clothes, he was even sharing the bad with him and he actually loved it. He didn't mind wearing the sweaters and coats that I outgrew, even if the sleeves did flop down too big and make his wrists look as thin and white as a little girl's. Also, when Pete was with Melissa to the cinema, Sucker was inside the place as well, and Pete wanted to show him to Melissa but he changed his mind. When I was younger, I used to have a friend 3 or 4 years younger than me. She always tried to copy me. The way I dressed, the things I liked and so on. I cannot say I was always nice to her. Sometimes she used to annoy me. Younger friends tend to not get some conversations and some action older teens do. I am not friend with her anymore. We went on separate ways, but we kept it decent, we do not avoid each other when we meet on street. We are always polite with one another, even if we are not friends anymore. Pete started to ignore Pete again because of his problems with Maybell. He realized his anger and his hurt on Sucker. At first I was so worried I just forgot about Sucker. Then, later he began to get on my nerves. When Sucker asked Pete one night why they are not friends anymore, Pete explodes and started to insult Sucker and to say lots of bad words. Sucker felt very hurt. It was one thing to be ignored or fooled once in a while by his cousin, and another thing to find out that Pete does not care at all about him and he stayed with him just because of mercy. "Why aren't we buddies? Because you're the dumbest slob I ever saw! Nobody cares anything about you! And just because I felt sorry for you sometimes and tried to act decent don't think I give a damn about a dumb-bunny like you! If I talked loud or hit him it wouldn't have been so bad. But my voice was slow and like I was very calm. Sucker's mouth was part way open and lie looked as though
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he'd knocked his funny bone. Therefore, Sucker had enough and he was too angry and hurt on Pete that he could not pass over what his cousin had told him. He became tougher and he decided to be his own personality and not a Sucker for Pete. At the end of the story we find out that Sucker had a real name, not just a nick name. I don't even want to call him Sucker anymore and unless I forget I call him by his real name, Richard. The relationship between Pete and Sucker is very common these days. Teenagers always tend to ignore the other persons who adores them and when they pay attention to their fans they are doing it just to make fun on them or to use them. In other words, Pete, Sucker and Maybell represent the relationship between popular and unpopular teens. Also when a teen is treated badly by a popular person, he uses the same treatment on the person he can have some power over. Sucker, a real character and an important one, showed us how some bad treatment toured others can affect them. Lesson 12 12) a) The literary technique used in this passage is foreshadowing. The author used this technique as a way of letting us know that there is a reason why the town from the story is looking so empty and why Miss Amelia is looking outside daily. It is a hint, a suggestion of what is going to happen later on the story and in a way, it gives the reads curiosity to keep reading so that they can find out what happened. b) Three details that suggest the grotesque in the passage: 1) the man was a hunchback; the hump that sat on this shoulders
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2) crooked little legs ; a very large head 3) His face was both soft and sassy; lavender shadows beneath his eyes; old suitcase which was tied with a rope c) The verbs tenses changes from this excerpt allow you it hear the two voices of the narrator. The first sentence uses the present tense. Bu the two sentences that are fallowing it are in past tense. After, the tense it is changing again to the present. The transition between the two voices seems to be general to specific. The present tense, which is used by the lamentable voice, is describing the Amelias liqueur and it helps the reader to understand better the importance of it for the towns people, the balladeer voice and the lamentable voice are creating a better understanding of the excerpt. d) i) There is a type of person who has a quality about him that sets him apart *+. Until this sentence, the verbs were at past tense and the balladeer voice was telling the story. In this sentence and the ones that fallow, the verbs are at present tense. The lamentable voice takes in and makes a generalization about human characteristics and personalities. ii) Since is a switched between past tense to present and back to past, the transition is specific to general. iii) The second transition is starting with this sentence: Certainly the hunchback was of this type. The narrator it switches back to the balladeer voice she used at the beginning and it talks about a specific character, the hunchback. The verbs are at past tense again. iv) The subject of this excerpt is cousin Lymon, the hunchback.
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v) From this excerpt we can see a few characteristics of Lymon. One of it is that, he is very curious about others people life and wants to know everything about it. Once comfortably settled he began to chat with everyone, asking questions such as if a man was married, how old he was, how much his wages came to in an average week *+. Another characteristic is that Lymon it is an indiscreet person, asking really private questions picking his way along inquiries which were downright intimate Also we find out that he has a special quality, which sets him apart of other people. He can make contact with other people very easily and he is very catchy. He had only been in the store half an hour before an immediate contact had been established between him and each other individual. e) The narrative voice speaking in this excerpt is the balladeer voice. All verbs are at the past tense. The narrator is describing something specific, not general. She is describing how the opening caf ended and how the town looked after it. Sooneverything-t he main street with its three stores, the mill, the houses- all the town, in fact- was dark and silent. Most of the sentences have a natural order of the words. The use of poetic technique is also present: dark and silent, unholy holiday. The action is taking place in the past. The voice is flat, with no emotions and objective. It is the voice of a storyteller. Lesson 13 13) In the novella The Ballad of The Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers, we are

introduce with an interesting character, Cousin Lymon. Miss Amelia, one of the main characters of the novella, is connected directly with this character. Lymon changed Miss Amelias life in both ways, in good and in worst. He is also the one who touched Miss Amelias heart. The Caf starts and ends with Lymon. Cousin
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Lymon is one of the persons involved in a love-triangle, wich would have impact not only over the people involved in it, but also over the townspeople. In the beginning of the story, a stranger came in the small town, asking for Miss Amelia. He was claiming that he was her cousin and he showed a blurred picture with Amelias aunt and his aunt, as proof. The hunchback scrambled among these belongings and brought out an old photograph. This is a picture of my mother and her half-sister (8). He was poor, having only an old suitcase, looking funny and with no place to go. I remember hearing her tell how she had a half-sister named Martha. And back in Cheehaw today they tell me that was your mother.(7). Miss Amelia took him in and took care of him. She gave him clothes, her fathers bedroom, personal objects and lots of money. After the caf was open, he became popular and the center of the attention at the cafe. He is that that kind of person who get under peoples skin very easily. The hunchback was very sociable and he was talking with everybody without any reservations. There is a type of person who has a quality about him that sets him apart from other and more ordinary human beings. Such a person usually has an instinct which is usually found only in small children, an instinct to establish immediate and vital connect between himself and all things in the world. Certainly the hunchback was of this type.(20). The townspeople also liked him because, due to his arrival, the caf was opened and they finally had a place where they can talk. The Caf gave pride to the town and Cousin Lymon was a big part of it. Lymon stood at Miss Amelia for the fallowing years, and, despite the fact that he saw that Miss Amelia loved him, he did not share her feelings. He used her love to get money, to go to shows and events. According to McCullerss theory of
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love, cousin Lymon was the beloved, and Miss Amelia the lover. For Miss Amelia loved cousin Lymon. So much was clear to everyone.(25). Miss Amelia found out that her ex-husband would be back in town, but the first who saw him, was cousin Lymon. He saw how Marvin arrived into town, and they exchange a weird look. It was a pelicular stare they exchanged between them, like the look of two criminals who recognize each other (46). In other words, Marvin recognize the con artist in cousin Lymon, and Lymon knew that Marvin was a bad guy. Lymon heard about him before when Marvins brother told Miss Amelia that her ex-husband would be in town soon, but he did not know who he was. When they looked at each other, something strange happened, especially with cousin Lyman. After Marvin started to walk to his house, cousin Lymon started to follow him. The hunchback was very pale as he watched the man go down the road, and after a few moments he began to follow along carefully, keeping many paces away.(47). Lymon started to like Marvin more and more, as the days passed. He started to fallow Marvin everywhere and he did everything to get his attention, despite the fact that Marvin did not share his feelings. He even made fun of Miss Amelia just to be liked by Marvin. After Marvin arrived into town, the hunchback forgot all the good Miss Amelia did to him. In a way, Marvin became his role model. Cousin Lymon did not bother that Marvin was in penitentiary, he actually find it extraordinary. If we think again at the McCullers theory of love, we can see that cousin Lymon became the lover, and Marvin the beloved. Because Lymon became the lover of Marvin, he helped him to destroy Amelias caf, even though he knew this would badly hurt Miss Amelia. After that he left her, with no regrets, and he walked away with Marvin. We do not know exactly what happened with cousin Lymon,

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just a few theories said by the townspeople. One of the theories sated that Marvin sold the hunchback. It is the narrator way of making us imagine the final. Cousin Lymon is a very important character in this story. He is the one who made Miss Amelia friendlier, more open and he helped her start the caf. In the same time, he is the one who also destroyed Miss Amelia life. Also, Lymon is a perfect example of the beloved, of the person who does not share back the love feelings, but he still sticks around his lover and takes advantages of her. Cousin Lymon, or the hunchback, is a very complex and well created character. He is one of the characters who made this ballad sad. The hunchback is the typical person who uses someone to archives her goals and needs, and after she does not need him or her anymore, she forgets the person who helped her very easily. Lesson 14 14) The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers is a very interesting story. I personally think that the world created by McCullers is depressing and sad because the world created in the ballad is very strange and empty. In a way, I feel sorry for the people who had to live in that small, ghost town. Ive been in small towns and in small villages, but Ive never got to experience a world like the one described in the novella and it was surprising. Most of the townspeople gave me the impression that they are sad and bored because there was nothing in the town to do and they had no social life. They did not have others activities, except work and home. Loneliness is one of the characteristics of the town people, especially for Miss. Amelia. If others had a friend or a family, she had no one and she like it that way. Even though they lived in a small town, the people were pretty mean with each other and not very warm, which made me feel repulsed. It
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could be the unfortunate situation they were force to be in, but they never seemed to try to make things better and to be a real community. Another characteristic of the people in this town is joyless, due to the lack of opportunities the place had to offer. They seem to be stuck in that small, sad town, with no chance to escape. The people from this town have no real social life. They do not do anything together to bond with each other or to develop the town. There are no cafes, no restaurants or other places where people can get together and have a nice evening once in a while. If you walk along the main street on an August afternoon there is nothing whatsoever to do.(3) They live together in the same town, but they are not a real community. The only place where a few men are gathering, is Miss Amelias property, where they drink the special liquor, but they are drinking there only if their wives do not let them drink at home. Also, Miss Amelia dose not interact with the drinking men. They are just sitting there getting drunk. Always before, it was necessary to go around to the dark back yard, and there she would hand out your bottle through the kitchen door. There was no feeling of joy in the transaction.(21) The town came to life in the moment Miss Amelia opened the Caf. It started to flourish, to be more active and alive. Sadly, it only lasted a few years, unit Cousin Lymon picked Marvin Macys side and left Miss Amelia alone and heart broken. After that, the caf closed and the town became a ghost. This time, I think it was a little bit worse than before, because now the people from this town knew how it was to be more open with one another and everybody would miss the cafs atmosphere. The town ended up like this because Miss Amelia opened the Caf only because Cousin Lymon was there. She did it for him, not because she wanted to bring something new to the
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community. Based on McCullerss theory of love, Miss Amelia was the lover and Cousin Lymon the beloved and since Miss Amelia her feelings for Cousin Lymon, showed in one way or another, it was inevitable that she would suffered. There for, it makes sense that she felt heart-broken and abandoned when Cousin Lymon ran away with her ex-husband. She isolated herself completely from the community, especially after the moment she realized Cousin Lymon would not come back. Since Miss Amelia closed the Caf, nobody opened a new Caf or started a new project and the town went to the way it was before Cousin Lymon came in town. Otherwise the town is lonesome, sad and like a place that is far off and estranged from all other places in the world (3). The lack of social life the townspeople have made me feel that their situation is quite sad. I do not like introverted people and ghost-like places. I am usually a happy, warm, communicative person and the lack of social life and communication between the towns habitants made me feel sorry for them. When I read the novella, the characters and their action gave me the feeling that they are quite lonely, even though they leave in the same town. With the exception of the chain gang, there is no real friendship or real relationship between the town civilians. The only moments when they seem to be close and to have something in common, is when something out of the ordinary happens, like a scandal or a divorce. In a way they seem to live for these events to occur so that they can have something new and exciting to talk about. When Miss Amelia had her wedding or when she let Cousin Lymon to live with her, the towns locators where very animated. . they remembered her puzzling marriage, which was the most unreasonable scandal ever to happen in this town(14) When the rumor about Miss Amelia murder of Cousin Lymon spread out to all people in the town,
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lots of them were so happy that she was accused of something bad, that they made a celebration out of it and some of them even . put on Sunday clothes as though it was holiday(14). We find out that in the whole town there a few sensible men and three good people, but the majority were quick to judge and throw stones. I think the perfect example of loneliness is Miss Amelia. She is described as a though women who only cares about money, suing people, making profit out of everything she could and self-centered. We also find out that Miss Amelia was . raised motherless by her father who was a solitary man, that early in her youth she had grown to be six feet two inches tall(14). I think that her childhood had an impact on her and the fact that she was taller than most of the women from that town made her the weird person everybody judged. Without a mother, raised by a loner father and a very judging community, Miss Amelia became the cold women everybody hates and has their eyes on her. I do not think she is that bad, especially since the novella reveals that Miss Amelia is a very good doctor and take cares of everybody who is sick and she takes no money for her medical services. She also has a soft spot for sick children. Miss Amelia is the character who best shows the loneliness characteristic of this small, forgotten town. The twelve mortal men are the only ones who shows peace, brotherhood, unity, even though they are not truly free. Through their songs and the comfort that they are together to support each other, manage to break free of the cruel reality and to make the worst situation manageable and peaceful, things that the towns people who are literally free to do whatever they want, fail to do break the chains that hold them in frozen in the same place and same mentality. Also, since the whole story is based on McCullerss love theory, it is understandable why nobody seem to be able to give love and receive love in the same time. They do
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not think at their neighbors as their extended family, they are simply a bunch of people living in the same town. Loneliness is a characteristic that gave me a feeling of depression because I do not like to be lonely and I enjoy the companion of other people, especially the companion of my family and friends. I love to be surrounded by people and to learn from them and the characters from The Ballad of the Sad Cafe are completely different from me. The characters from this story are mean and self-centered, despite the fact that they feel lonely and bored. If other characteristics of the townspeople made me feel compassionate, surprised or sad, their meanness made me feel repulsed. They are very quick to judge other persons based on their apparels, fortune and actions. After Miss Amelia got married with Marvin there were gossiping everywhere, even though, Miss Amelia business should not be their concern. When they saw Cousin Lymon coming to Miss Amelia, their first though was that he was a con artist who tried to take Miss Amelia money and valuable objects, even though they never met him. The townspeople called Cousin Lymon the hunchback (6), nick name given based on Lymons physical aspects. After Miss Evans let Lymon stay at her house and she did not do her usually routine the fallowing days, Merlie Ryan said that She [Amelia] murdered that man for something in that suitcase. (13). It was enough just for one person to say this and all people started to repeated the same line like parrots and some of them even started to imagine how Miss Amelia would be sent to prison. At first, Cousin Lymon was seen with judging eyes, but after he helped open the caf people liked him and forgot every suspicious thought they had about him. Even after the caf opened, some people gossip about Miss Amelia and Cousin Lymon relationship and if it was legit what these two were doing or not. Miss Amelia ex-husband,
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Marvin Macy was no different. When he came back in town and was mean, violent and ungrateful. If Lymon would be in his way, he would said to him Out of my way, Brokeback --Ill snatch you bald-headed.(56). They were never united, despite the warm and friendship feeling the caf gave to them, because after the caf closed and Miss Amelia was left miserable, they went back to their old life, without trying to make something new together. The crowed was quiet, and one by one the people left the caf. .This was not a fight to hash over and talk about afterwards; people went home and pulled the covers up over their heads(67) Nothing moves-there are no childrens voices, only the hum of the mill(69). Also, they did not help her go over the incident, except for a few women who tried to help her clean the house, but not recover from the tragedy. The people would have helped her [Amelia] if they had known how, as people in this town will as often as not be kindly if they have a chance.(68) The mean and selfcentered characters are part of the social criticism theme, theme that is well developed. The characters flaws that are showed in the story by the author highlights the grotesque and the Southern Gothic literature. The world created by Carson McCullers in her piece The Ballad of the Sad Cafe it is a very different from the world most people these days live in, including myself. The Southern Gothic is very clear, build with the grotesques characteristics of the characters and the specific theme. The sad events and forgotten town highlights the fact that, this McCullers opera is a ballad in prose. The novella made me feel different feelings, from sadness and compassion to repulse and anger. We can learn a few important things from this novella and also it makes us aware of what can we do to change our community and make it better, so it would never end up a forgotten place.
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