Construction of Grotesque Elements in The Ballad of the Sad Café

Abstract：Grotesque is important in expressing the inner mind of the characters and the subject of the novel. Gothic novel originates in 18th century in England. It spread to America， and has great development. Here， we will introduce the important woman gothic writer Carson McCullers and her famous work-The Ballad of the Sad Café， in this treatise， we have a deep analysis on the grotesque style.

Key words： grotesque， the futility of love，Carson McCullers， comedic elements

1.0 Carson McCullers and The Ballad of the Sad Café

Carson McCullers is the famous Southern American woman writer in the twentieth century. The Ballad of the Sad Café， as her representative work， is a record of her own life and love story to some extent. In this novel， we can draw the conclusion that the world was full of inextricable knots， everybody had conflicts with other people， conflicts and contradictions overwhelmed harmony and quietness.

2.0 Construction of Grotesque Elements

Carson McCullers depicted the physical disability and spiritual isolation of the ordinary people in the southern part of America，her works are acclaimed as “Southern Gothic Novels”（Shao，2009）. Then I will analyze the construction of grotesque elements in this novel.

2.1 Grotesque Love—the Futility of Love

People are lonely spiritually， and love is the only way to help us get rid of loneliness. While， in the world Carson McCullers depicted， all is in vain in the pursuit of love. The Ballad of the Sad Café shows us a love story of three people. For Miss Amelia， the only purpose of people is to make money as much as possible. The notorious villain Marvin Marcy fell in love with Miss Amelia， he discarded all his bad behaviors for Miss Amelia. Finally， Miss Amelia agreed to marry him. But Miss Amelia refused to perform her duty as Marvins wife， Marvin became much more wicked than before， and was put into prison finally.

Miss Amelia fell in love with the so-called cousin Lymon Willis. While it is ridiculous that Lymon Willis was attracted by Marvin. He even helped Marvin in the duel between Miss Amelia and Marvin. Miss Amelia wasdefeated，still herself， still lonely. From then on， she closed herself in her room.

All of the three people got little love from the people they loved， and they returned to the original loneliness（Sun，2009）. Through the depiction of the disillusioned love， what Carson McCullers wants to show is that love cannot heal loneliness， but can make people feel muchlonely.

2.2 Construction of Grotesque Characters

Carson McCullers created a lot of characters who are physically or spiritually grotesque.

Take the main character Miss Amelia in The Ballad of the Sad Café as an example， she was a black and tall woman like a man. Her fateful weakness was her disability to communicate with other people. The only use of people was to make money for her， she was successful in this respect and she became the richest people in the town. She was stingy while she was generous when she used her prescription to help the people who were ill. She refused Marvins love， while， a few years later， she fell in love with the freak Lymon. She liked the number seven， even the battle between Marvin and herself was settled at seven. While， she lost her battle and Lymon left her. From then on， she became breakdown spiritually. After 3 years， she confined herself into her own world and became a lonely ghost wandering in the wasteland. This creates a comparison with her normal image， it will lead us to explore the subject of the author for writing this novel， that is the lack of communication among people， loyalty， loneliness， isolation and the desperation for life.

2.3 Use of Comedic Elements

Most of Carson McCullers works are described as grotesque and gothic， while lots of critics ignore the comedic elements in the works.

Carson McCullers used both horrible and humorous elements in her works in order to make the readers feel happy and frightened. After reading a lot of works of Carson McCullers， we know that， the horrible effect of the violent scenes can be abated by the use of comedic elements. Miss Amelia fought with the cheat lawyer who was both tall and strong. Sometimes， she even squealed as a spook to cause alarm in the rival.

By using the comedic characters in her works， the relationship among the people became comedic as well as queer. Her use of such humorous and comedic elements in the works to cope with tragedy is in fact much more reasonable and realistic（Sun，2009）.

3.0 Conclusion

By the use of grotesque elements， Carson McCullers can not only show us the grotesque characters and phenomena， but also let us know that grotesque doesnt violate various logics， principles and rule of the real society. From the viewpoint of social history， the novel does not only expose the distortion of soul， but also the origin of an ordinary peoples tough journey to loneliness.

REFERENCES

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作者简介：于雪丽，女，（1988年12月7日——），单位：大连外国语大学 研究生，研究方向：跨文化交际学