Carson Mccullers The Marlowe's Room

Characterization, direct or indirect, helps shape a character with direct statements, as well as inferred material. Carson McCullers uses these elements to form depth in the personalities of each of her characters. On the first page, the narrator states “Frankie has become an unjoined person, and she was afraid.” McCullers writes this in order to forwardly describe her feelings of loneliness and melancholy. On page 96, it is stated that, “In the old days she would have waited in the hope that they might call her and tell her she had been elected to the club– and only at the very last, when it was plain that they were only passing, she would have shouted in angry loudness that they were not to cut across her yard. But now she watched them quietly,
“It was a summer Sunday and the hall door of the Marlowes’ room was open. She could see only a portion of the room, part of the dresser and only the footpiece of the bed with Mrs. Marlowe’s corset on it. But there was a sound in the quiet room she could not place, and when she stepped over the threshold she was startled by a sight that, after a single glance, sent her running to the kitchen, crying: Mr. Marlowe is having a fit!” This displays the cleanness of her mind and her youth without being forward about the subject, as she is unaware of the Marlowes’ actual activity. The author illustrates Frankie’s rashness indirectly as well. For instance, on page 153, it states, “She had said that she would shoot herself if the bride and her brother would not take her. She pointed the pistol at the side of her head and held it there for a minute or two.” Even if she did not follow through with the action of killing herself, the fact that she was prepared to do so shows how dangerously reckless she is. By including these details and more like them, McCullers adds depth to her characters, and encourages the reader to not only pay attention to her direct statements, but to read between the lines to truly visualize each individual as