This is the brief plot of The Ballad of Sad Café, which is a tragic love story. It is obvious that the three characters have fallen in the triangle love. Their polyhedrosis love relationship forms an interlocking circle, and will be analyzed in detail in the following paragraphs.
1.1 The handsome evil man—Marvin Macy and the manly woman—Miss Amelia
Miss Amelia is self-reliant, outspoken and very much a loner. “She was a dark, tall woman with bones and muscles like a man.”[2] Her hair was cut short and brushed back from the forehead, and there was about her sunburned face a tense, haggard quality. From the description of her appearance, it is obvious that Amelia is not a attractive person. As a matter of fact, she cared nothing for the love of men. She is solitary with difficulty of communicating with people. Amelia thinks that the only use of other people is to make money out of them— “People, unless they are nilly-willy or very sick, cannot be taken into the hands and changed overnight to something more worthwhile and profitable.”[2] So Yet, the people of the small, southern town 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 Marvin Macy, falls in love with her.
Marvin Macy, “was the handsomest man in this region—being six feet one inch tall, hard-muscled, and with slow gray eyes and curly hair” [2] But he is an evil character: he used to carry with him the ear of a man he killed in a razor fight; he has chopped off the heads of squirrels; and he has abused several young girls. Without reasons, at the age of twenty-two, he chose Amelia. Commendably, he wants Amelia solely out of love.
So he changes his unlawful ways to win Miss Amelia’s love. Rather than robbing he begins attending church services on Sunday mornings. In an effort to court Miss Amelia, he learns proper etiquette, such as rings and flowers. Marvin Macy devotes all his love to Amelia. Love has undoubted magic power. Love makes him completely change: his soul in the composition of devil disappeared clearly, and the angel is called back. His change surprises all the people of town.
If he could get equal love from Amelia, he would be reborn in spirit and soul. Unfortunately, all his efforts eventually in vain due to Amelia’s ruthless.
1.2 Miss Amelia’s love for the hunchback—Cousin Lymon
Although Amelia doesn’t love Macy, she shows a special cherish for Lymon, a hunchback. Nobody knows who the hunchback is, where he comes from, whether he is Amelia’s real cousin. He is alone, painful, weak, helpless, with no sense of belonging. He embodies the image of a person who is hopelessly wandering in the wilderness of the loss of emotion and faith. Since Amelia met Lymon at the first sight; she has had a baffling feeling for him. She falls in love without any reasons. Their love story is the main clues of The Ballad of Sad Café.
Just as love had changes Marvin Macy, so does it changes Miss Amelia. When Lymon shows up, Amelia’s actions are quite different from her usual style and character. She could seldom be persuaded to sell her liquor on credit, and for her to give so much as a drop away free was almost unknown. But she pulled out a bottle from her hip pocket and after polishing off the top with the palm of her hand she handed it to the hunchback to drink. She readily provides 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. She even starts a café to please Lymon.
Since Amelia lived with Lymon, she was not a woman who didn’t care for love any more, but a lonesome lover. She always looks at him, softly, gently, with smile. The author narrates lots of details of Amelia’s expression of love. For example:
Miss Amelia never mentioned her father to anyone else except Cousin Lymon. That was one of the ways in which she showed her love for him. He had her confidence in the most delicate and vital matters. He alone knew where she kept the chart that showed where certain barrels of whisky were buried on a piece of property near by. He alone had access to her hank-book and the key to the cabinet of curios. He took money from the cash register, whole handfuls of it, and appreciated the loud jingle it made inside his pockets. He owned almost everything on the premises, for when he was cross Miss Amelia would prowl about and find him some present—so that now there was hardly anything left close at hand to give him.[2]
In order to maintain this love relationship, Amelia gives Lymon all her belongings, including her heart and her fortune.
Miss Amelia’s deep love for the hunchback never becomes a normal mutual love, but ends with a tragedy. Lymon betrays her love, for he has an unusual feeling for Amela’s “enemy” Marvin Macy. The malformed polyhedrosis love comes to a tragic ending: those who beloved don’t accept the love but betray those who love them; those who give love become victims of abuse. 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 unrequired, individuals, having lost their motivation to change, will revert back to their true selves. The allure of the different characters, seems to indicate that feeling of love and attraction is not necessarily reasonable or understandable to others [3].转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net
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