The Ballad of the Sad Cafe Formal Essy free essay sample

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, by Carson McCullers (1951) advocates that there are two types of people in the world, which are: the lover and the beloved. The lover is a pathetic character so infatuated by the beloved that it totally changes his/her attitude or character completely. The feeling is so strong that although it causes the lover severe pain, he/she continue to love. The two main characters in the book fall under the mysterious spell which changes their lives forever. McCullers also seems to suggest that the feelings of love and attraction are not fundamentally reasonable or logical to others, and if they are left unanswered it can cause the lover to return back to his/her true self. McCullers says: love is a joint experience between two persons- However; the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved. There is the lover and the beloved, but these two come from different places. (26). Lymon is a strangely looking weird character in McCullers story as it stated in the book the man was a hunchback. He was scarcely more than four feet tall (6) He was not very attractive . The only thing he had was intelligence as he was able to fool Miss Amelia, who was the richest person in town. Lymon comes to find Miss Amelia so she can provide him with a place to live. He fooled her into thinking that they are cousins. Lymon went through his belongings and came across a very old photograph which he had used to prove that certainly he is her cousin even though the photograph was hard to differentiate the faces of the two women in the picture. Lymon is a poor person who searches Miss Amelia and uses her for her wealth. As Miss Amelia see`s the photograph, she quickly accepts Lymon as her cousin and welcomes him into her home. Lymon stays with Miss Amelia because he can feel the power he has while living with her. Miss Amelia falls in love with Lymon and provides him with many clean clothes, good food, shoes, accessories and she even offers him her father’s room to stay in. Whatever Lymon wishes, Miss Amelia gets for him right away. No one can say anything or mess around with Lymon while he is living with her. Lymon is getting all the attention and everything he wants, which makes him stay with Miss Amelia. Lymon has proven himself to be a friendly and outgoing person who enjoys entertaining the towns people with his stories. He is an attention seeker who lives life to the fullest and loves being the center of activity at the cafe. Lymon was the one who had convinced Miss Amelia into changing her store into a cafe just for his own pleasure of entertaining people. Miss Amelia allows the change to occur out of love for Lymon. Soon the store is transformed into the cafe and the cafe became a great place of entertainment for the people in the town. People became more well-mannered, respectful and were entertained by Lymons company at the cafe. Lymon loved setting up people into fights as it says in the book, The hunchback was a great mischief maker every other fight for the matter since he had come in town (39). The transformation of the cafe had caused Lymon to act as the boss and the owner of the cafe, as one who owns every plank of the floor beneath his feet (18). Lymon was the chief form of entertainment for the cafe who enjoyed watching people fight for his own pleasure. The arrival of Marvin Macy in town changes Lymon’s behaviour and attitude completely. Lymon turns pale (47) when he sees Marvin Macy which is strange as he does not know about the ten day marriage trial of Miss Amelia and Marvin. The author advocates that Marvin and Lymon might have known each other from before He and the man stared at each other, and it was not a look of two strangers meeting for the first time eculiar stare they exchanged between them, like the look of two criminals who recognized each other (46). Lymon starts to carefully beam and follow around Marvin Macy, keeping many paces away. In addition, he is amazed by Marvins adventurous and exciting life. Lymon’s behaviour toward Marvin is immature and childish noticeably unimpressive and unflattering to all the people in the town, as it states in the book He stood there wiggling his large pale ear s with marvellous quickness and ease (48). Moreover, even when Lymon recognizes that his accomplishments are getting him nowhere at all, he still made new efforts to impress Marvin He fluttered his eyelids, so that they were like pale swamp haunt. Even when Marvin hits him which makes him fall back, he shows no shame and still tries to impress him and to prove to him that he is still the best. In conclusion, The Ballad of Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers is an engaging and interesting novel with strange characters like Lymon who loves to live life to the fullest. He loves being the center of attention and is a character that looks forward setting up individuals into fights. In addition, he is smart enough to fool and gain benefit of people such as Miss Amelia who loved him with all her heart and gave him everything he asked for even though in return he does not give her anything back but to leave her heart broken. Throughout the story, Lymon has demonstrated himself to be a selfish man who does not care for anyone but himself. At the end we learn that Miss Amelia, Marvin, and Lymon found no happiness just pain and loneliness out of love.