The "Marginal Man" In Carson McCullers’s Novels

Carson McCullers (1917-1967) is a unique woman writer in the American South in the 20th century. In her short life, she has created a substantial and impressive body of works: four novels, a novella, twenty short stories, two plays, a book of children’s verses,and numerous poems and essays. McCullers devotes herself to presenting human beings’spiritual isolation in her works, so she is called ."the lonely hunter". McCullers usually focuses on the "other" individuals who are marginalized by the mainstream ideologies in the society. In terms of race, gender, sexuality or class, her characters are often in the inferior position.This thesis aims to make a detailed analysis of the typical marginalized characters in McCullers’s five novels The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Ballad of Sad Cafe, The Member of the Wedding, Reflections in a Golden Eye, and Clock Without Hands based on theories about the marginal man. It also tries to reveal the common experiences of the marginalized, hoping to uncover the value and significance of McCullers’s writing about the marginal man.This thesis is made up of five chapters. Chapter One gives a brief introduction to Carson McCullers and her major works, and a general survey of the previous studies on the writer and her works. Then it explains the purpose and the structure of the thesis.Chapters Two to Four are the body part of the thesis, which gives a detailed analysis of seven marginalized characters in McCullers’s five novels. The second chapter classifies the marginal man" into three kinds in terms of gender, sexuality and race. They include southern females oppressed by the patriarchal culture, the homosexuals excluded by heterosexual hegemony, and the ethnic minorities suffering from racial discrimination.The third chapter elaborates on the common experiences of these marginalized characters.Though marginalized by different repressive forces, the three kinds of marginal man all suffer from loneliness both within and without, and feel anxious as a result of their identity crisis. They all try to struggle against their surrounding environment, hoping to reconstruct the ideal self in their own way, but their ef-forts inevitably end in failure—sometimes death is the only way to get rid of the shackles of life. The fourth chapter analyzes the significance of McCullers’s creation of the marginal man. Drawing on the writer’s personal experiences and taking the social background of the American South into account, the chapter argues that McCullers’s writing about the "marginal man"is to utter her dissatisfaction with her own sufferings and to criticize the hegemony of the various repressive ideologies in the southern society.Chapter Five is the conclusion. It first summarizes previous discussions in the thesis.Then it restates the significance of McCullers’s writing about the marginal man: by depicting the marginal man, McCullers challenges and even attempts to subvert the dominant southern culture in her own time. In addition, her novels spur readers to reconsider the accepted cultural and social values in the southern society.