Gender Roles In The Member Of The Wedding

Life, by all means, is complicated. Organisms live and die by a set of arbitrary rules known only to the universe itself. Circumstance and coincidence, more often than not, play a large factor into how the game of life plays out: who wins and loses, who finds love and who doesn’t, and who finds monetary success and who finds themselves scraping the bottom of the barrel. This complication of reality can oft only be explained through words, and, in turn, life finds itself represented through literature. Literary fiction takes concepts of the universe and turns them into tales – perhaps even with touches of fact – that attempt to explain or argue about life and its many complications. One such piece of fiction, The Member of the Wedding by Carson
Throughout the first act, McCullers takes time to point out John Henry’s love for the doll Frankie gifted to him and how often he plays with it (17, 18, 23, 27, 28, 31). Playing with dolls is a behavior typically scene as feminine. In furthering her presentation of John Henry as existing outside of gender norms, when he imitates the performance of “The Vagabond King,” John Henry chooses to imitate the heroine of the play instead of a male character (9). John Henry, in the second act, puts on Berenice’s hat, shoes, and carries her pocketbook (85). Also in the second act, Berenice talks of a man who turned into a girl. John Henry asks if he did this by “kiss(ing) his elbow?” Immediately after asking the question, John Henry attempts to kiss his elbow (58). This potentially implies that John Henry wants to be a girl. Based on his character traits that push against accepted gender roles, his seeming to want to change gender could be based on what society believes is acceptable for each gender. Consequently, despite personifying innocence in the story, this conclusion may lead to the second conclusion that gender roles have begun to negatively affect John