The Member Of The Wedding Analysis

Shinji Lin
Dr. Beagle
Honors English (P4)
March 8, 2016
The Strange Case of a Girl Named Addams
In Carson McCullers’ novella The Member of the Wedding, Frankie Addams, the 12-year-old protagonist, undergoes puberty and matures throughout the story. She is fearful and disconnected in the first part of the novel. However in Part Two, she fabricates a connection with Jarvis and Janice, her brother and his fiancée, and changes her name to F. Jasmine to match the J A of their names. Finally in Part Three, she finds herself speechless at the couple’s wedding and loses the connection, but develops into a young woman by the name of Frances. The three names of the Addams girl represent a different outlook and stage in the course of the novella.
In Part One of McCullers’ novella, Frankie, the 12-year-old protagonist, is insecure and very afraid of being alone in the world, further worsened by her fear of her own height and the crimes she commits. The main emotion McCullers associates with Frankie is fear. When McCullers tells of the year Frankie thought about the world, she talks about what Frankie truly is scared of. Frankie realizes she “was not afraid of Germans or bombs or Japanese. She was afraid because in the war they would not include her, and because the world seemed separate from herself” (24). Due to the start of Frankie’s puberty and maturation, she comes to realize how large the world really is compared to her kitchen. However, her greatest fear is not the Axis powers, but is to be isolated from all the excitement of the war and the world, because she wishes to be part of something larger than herself. To add to her fright, Frankie commits petty crimes, exhausting her anger towards her town. During the summer, she tells Berenice, the family cook, “I wish I could tear down this whole town,” and she “took the pistol from her father’s bureau drawer and carried it all over town and shot up the cartridges in a vacant lot” (25). Because Frankie feels trapped inside her small home, she feels contempt for it. Thus, the irritated and fearful personality of Frankie gets the best of her and she is prompted to act violently around town. Another factor causing Frankie’s insecurity is her dread of growing in height forever. She recalls the annual fair where she would stare at the House of Freaks. She “was afraid of all the Freaks, for it seemed to her that they had looked at her in a secret way and tried to connect their eyes with hers, as though to say: we know you” (20). Uneducated about her body and growth, Frankie believes that she will grow so tall, she will eventually become a Freak. This is influenced by her fright of turning into an outcast and being disjointed from the world because of her height. Despite Frankie stepping into the adult world, she is still unsure of life and pressured by her height, crimes, and the ongoing war. So far, she desires a connection to allow herself to be part of the rest of the world.
In Part Two of McCullers’ novella, Frankie changes her name to F.
Jasmine to match the J A names of Jarvis and Janice, her brother and his fiancée, and she has developed a purpose, a sense of connection, and a feeling of self-confidence. When Frankie was uncertain of what she would become, F. Jasmine currently has a clear goal. Previously in Part One, she concluded that Jarvis and Janice “are the we of me. Yesterday, and all twelve years of her life, she had only been Frankie. She was an I person who had to walk around and do things by herself” (42). By realizing how she can be included somewhere, Frankie becomes F. Jasmine. She splits herself from Frankie, as though the past twelve years never happened, but she has a more positive outlook on life. While Frankie was unsure most of the time, F. Jasmine is more secure with her role in the world. After she has her epiphany to run away with Jarvis and Janice after their wedding, she believes she knows what she will do in life. The two identities of the Addams girl are clearly different: “the old Frankie of yesterday . . . had been puzzled, but F. Jasmine did not wonder anymore; already she felt familiar with the wedding for a long, long time” (50). Many times, Frankie had been confused and unsure about why she was in the world. Now, her brother’s wedding and honeymoon have given her something to look forward to in life, as F. Jasmine feels that she is part of their marriage and in a greater sense, part of the world of
“we.” This “new” person Frankie has become is certain of her own identity. When F. Jasmine walks around town, she remembers the time her Frankie self “had gone around pretending to be Mexican . . . but when the game was over, and she was home, there would come over her a cheated discontentment,” while F. Jasmine “was not trying to trick people and pretend; far from it, she wanted only to be recognized for her true self” (61). Frankie felt loneliness and faking an identity in public gave her one, although it was fabricated. Now, F. Jasmine thinks she has a genuine identity alongside Jarvis and Janice, and she is proud to show it to the world. Not only is F. Jasmine sure in her life, but she is a happier and more optimistic person than Frankie once she feels a connection with someone other than herself. In Part Three of McCullers’ novella, F.
Jasmine ceases to exist and changes to Frances when she is unable to convey her desire to run away with Jarvis and Janice at the wedding, yet truly begins to grow up into an adult. At first, she is distraught at not being able to tell the couple her dream, however, she is determined to leave home and runs away the night she returns from the wedding. Frances “would show them. The wedding had not included her, but she would still go into the world. Where she was going she did not know; however, she was leaving town that night” (149). In contrast to Frankie who would think and speak of leaving, Frances is a proactive girl. She finally takes action and follows her wish to leave her home. While she is departing, Frances has an epiphany about sexual encounters in her former lives. She “recalled the silence in the hotel room . . . a fit in a front room, the silence, the nasty talk . . . these separate recollections fell together in the darkness of her mind . . . in a flash there came in her an understanding” (155). Differing from the naïve Frankie and F. Jasmine, Frances suddenly realizes past events that had to do with sex. This conveys her maturation as she recognizes an aspect of adult life. In addition to discovering what sex is, Frances becomes more realistic about her plans to run away from home. Before Frances departs, she comes up with a plan to go to Hollywood or join the Marines. However, she is picked up by the police
to take her home and contemplates “The plans for the movies or the Marines were the only child plans that would never work” (157). Becoming more sensible, Frances realizes her dreams are extravagant and unlikely. Once she has this second epiphany, she becomes a young woman. Along with Frances’ development, she grows up due to other changes in her life, such as the death of John Henry, her cousin, a different town her father and she move to, and the marriage of Berenice, the family cook. Nevertheless, Frances finally finds the connection she wanted with a new best friend, Mary Littlejohn. As the protagonist enters a new stage in life, she changes her name, a form of her identity. At first, she goes by a child nickname, Frankie, and is much of the time scared. When she feels a bond with the J A couple, Frankie changes into a confident F. Jasmine. After the couple leaves without her at the wedding, she grows up into a wiser Frances. From there, she ends her life as a child and begins her life as an adult.