Early Adolescence Of Girls In Carson Mccullers's Works

Carson McCullers proved herself as a writer of extraordinary power and startling originality in the literary circle of 1940s. McCullers explores the alienating human condition of being and depicts intricate and subtle feelings of various outsiders, including adolescents, who belong nowhere—neither children nor adults. The subordinate theme of adolescent initiation is a rising topic.This thesis is designed to discuss the early adolescence of girls in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and The Member of the Wedding. McCullers herself is an adolescent girl that is troubled by constant confusion and isolation and always seeks sense of belonging. Base on her adolescent experience and imagination, she created Mick and Frankie, two unique and moving adolescent characters in literature. Mick, who is fond of music and has the talent of music playing and composing, suffers isolation and all her efforts of getting rid of it turn out to be futile; Frankie finds her confusion and the difficulty of solving it, wishes to escape and to belong to something larger than herself, to find"the we of me". Employing Eric Erikson's theory of identity crisis, this thesis examines the confusion, oscillation, escape, dream and fancy, ego identity of Mick and Frankie in their early adolescence.