Cousin Lymon Character Analysis Essay

The world’s best novella’s are those that leave the reader in shock and constantly curious as to what might happen next. The novella, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers, is a novella that follows the main theme of love that involves the main characters Miss Amelia, Marvin Macy, and cousin Lymon all connected under one love triangle. Throughout the novel cousin Lymon proves himself time and time again to be very dependent on others,a dramatic attention seeker, as well as a grotesque.

Cousin Lymon is a character unlike any other in the novella. He shows up in a deserted town declaring that he is related to the very wealthy miss Amelia.Cousin Lymon not only has a unique personality but his appearance is also extremely grotesque. “The man was a hunchback. He was scarcely more than four feet tall’(McCullers,6).Moreover, Despite his hideous appearance Lymon is very intelligent and is able to convince miss Amelia that he is indeed her cousin. Cousin Lymon desperately tries to prove his relation to miss Amelia by showing her an old photograph. “ The hunchback scrambled among these belongings and brought out an old photograph”(McCullers,8). Regardless of the fact that it was nearly impossible to identify the two women in the photography, cousin Lymon successfully tricks miss Amelia into believing him. Cousin Lymon brings
out the rare caring side of miss Amelia which shocks the whole town. Miss Amelia allows him to stay inside of her home and soon finds herself falling in love with him.

When Marvin Macy makes his reappearance in town, Lymon’s behaviour begins to shift drastically. When Marvin Macy and Lymon first spot each other it is suggested that they somehow are not meeting for the first time. “ He and the man stared at each other, and it was not a look of two strangers meeting for the first time”(McCullers,46). Lymon’s complexion loses its colour and becomes very pale without even knowing about the short lived marriage between Marvin Macy and miss Alexia. Lymon is evidently threatened by Marvin Macy’s presence and immediately begins to try to show off and impress him. “He stood there wiggling his large pale ears with marvelous quickness and ease”(McCullers,48). Furthermore, Lymon acknowledges that he is not impressing anyone but shows no signs of stopping. Even when Marvin Macy does hit him he still puts his full effort into showing off any skill he can.
Cousin Lymon is undeniably a very sociable person who enjoys being the centre of attention at all times. It was cousin Lymon who pressured miss Amelia into making her store a cafe out of his own selfish need to entertain others and she obliged out of pure love for Lymon. The cafe gained plenty of popularity for being a form of entertainment for the town’s people as Lymon frequently set people up to get into fights. “ The hunchback was a great mischief maker… every other fight for the matter since he had come in town”(McCullers,39). Although Lymon was responsible for the fights that happened in town he was also responsible for the success of the cafe. “Queerly enough, in spite of this it was the hunchback who was most responsible for the great popularity of the cafe”(McCullers,39). Overall, Lymon was without a doubt the most entertaining person in the cafe and never failed to make the town’s people laugh.
On the whole, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is a phenomenally written novella that allows the reader to engage in the characters lives as if they were there to experience the story themselves.
Cousin Lymon is a very energetic character who thrives off of being the centre of attention. He is also very wise and manipulative as he is able to take so much from miss Amelia without returning a single favour. In the long run cousin Lymon is nothing but a selfish man who wants to succeed but with minimal effort put in. As a whole, love is complicated between two people and bringing in a third leaves all three people nothing but lonely and
brokenhearted.