The Narrative Situation in The Ballad of the Sad Café
Keywords:
Narrative Theory, Carson McCullers, The Ballad of the Sad Café, GenderAbstract
The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers presents a unique narrative situation with a narrator who may be called communal, because he identifies himself with the townspeople, narrates what is known by them, and his knowledge of the events and the characters are limited to the geographical limits of the town. As a balladeer he narrates an event that concerns the townspeople. However, his narration conceals certain aspects of the story from the narratee who is a visitor or a stranger from out of town. What the narration hides is that the owners of the only café at the town, namely Miss Amelia Evans and Cousin Lymon are gay. The narrator does not make any statements as to their sexual identity though such a sexual preference is never tolerated in a conservative Southern town where Amelia lives. In this case, the townspeople and the narrator ignore this idea about Amelia and Lymon, as they have an indispensable importance for people. The narrative act which hides as much as it reveals can be deciphered correctly only when the unique narrative situation is recognized.
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