The Contemporary American Family Novel: A Study In Metaphor. - Page 208 |
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Mrs. McCullers finds these basic human Institutions,
the family In particular, natural metaphors for her purpose,
which Is to explore the Individual's search for love.
Frankie seeks, within her family, for several kinds of love
relationshipsi parent and child, brother and sister, and,
obliquely, the love-sex relationship represented In the
wedding.
It Is the sight of her brother Jarvis and his fiancee
on their visit before the wedding that generates Frankie's
major fantasy.
For a long time now her brother and the bride had been at Winter Hill. They had left the town a hundred miles behind them, and now were In a city far away. . . .
They were them and both together and she was only her and parted from them, by herself. And as she sickened with this feeling a thought and explanation suddenly came to her. . . . They are the we of me. Yesterday,
and all the twelve years of her life, she had only been Frankie, She was an £ person who had to walk around and do things by herself. All other people had a we
to claim, all others except her. When Berenice said we she meant Honey and Big Mama, her lodge, or her church. The we of her father was the store. All members
of clubs have a we to belong to and talk about.
The soldiers In the army can say we, and even the
criminals on chain-gangs. But the old Frankie had had no we to claim, unless It would be the terrible summer
we oF her and John Henry and Berenice— and that was tEe last we in the world she wanted. Now all this was suddenly over with and changed. There was her brother and the bride, and It was as though when first she saw them something she had known inside of heri They are the we of me. (p. 35)
In her innocence, Frankie does not fully comprehend the
sexual implications of the marriage or the feeling the engaged
couple arouses In her, ”a feeling that she could not
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| Title | The Contemporary American Family Novel: A Study In Metaphor. - Page 208 |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 20k Mrs. McCullers finds these basic human Institutions, the family In particular, natural metaphors for her purpose, which Is to explore the Individual's search for love. Frankie seeks, within her family, for several kinds of love relationshipsi parent and child, brother and sister, and, obliquely, the love-sex relationship represented In the wedding. It Is the sight of her brother Jarvis and his fiancee on their visit before the wedding that generates Frankie's major fantasy. For a long time now her brother and the bride had been at Winter Hill. They had left the town a hundred miles behind them, and now were In a city far away. . . . They were them and both together and she was only her and parted from them, by herself. And as she sickened with this feeling a thought and explanation suddenly came to her. . . . They are the we of me. Yesterday, and all the twelve years of her life, she had only been Frankie, She was an £ person who had to walk around and do things by herself. All other people had a we to claim, all others except her. When Berenice said we she meant Honey and Big Mama, her lodge, or her church. The we of her father was the store. All members of clubs have a we to belong to and talk about. The soldiers In the army can say we, and even the criminals on chain-gangs. But the old Frankie had had no we to claim, unless It would be the terrible summer we oF her and John Henry and Berenice— and that was tEe last we in the world she wanted. Now all this was suddenly over with and changed. There was her brother and the bride, and It was as though when first she saw them something she had known inside of heri They are the we of me. (p. 35) In her innocence, Frankie does not fully comprehend the sexual implications of the marriage or the feeling the engaged couple arouses In her, ”a feeling that she could not |
