The Power Battle Between Sexes In The Ballad Of The Sad Café

As one of the most representative American female writers of the20th century,Carson McCullers(1917-1967) impressed readers worldwide with her penetratingportrayal of characters that were considered grotesque in the conventional sense.Through the depiction of the poignant pain and loneliness these figures suffered dueto their physical and spiritual abnormality in the oppressive and hostile society,Carson expressed her profound reflection on loneliness, love and human existence andreceived high recognition for illustrating the struggle of queer female characters in themale-dominated world, Miss Amelia Evans in The Ballad of the Sad Café is a verygood example of such character.Being the richest woman in a small rural southern American town, Amelia wasan exceptional woman nowhere near the traditional obedient, submissive, and weakwomen. On the contrary, she enjoyed the superiority over the town’s men bothphysically and mentally. Such superiority, coupled with her industriousness, made herthe most powerful and decisive figure and more importantly, an independent beingwith an unconventional identity-androgyny in this man-dominated community whenthe rest of women struggled to exist as men’s vassal. Inevitably, men found theexistence of such a powerful woman threatening. Proud and rebellious, Ameliacertainly wouldn’t return her hard-won power. As a result, a power battle betweensexes ensued.Focusing on this exact power battle, this thesis probes into how Amelia firstsnatched power from men, how she then gradually transferred her power to men andhow she lost all power in the ultimate fight from the feminist perspective. At thebeginning, with muscles and brains, Amelia didn’t only wear and act like a man butstepped out of the house to the shrewd and aggressive intrusion into many man-onlyareas. Besides, her inner strength was no less than the external as she expressed herpride with her androgynous being. Then, driven by her longing for love andunderstanding, Amelia started to hand over the valuables and power to her belovedCousin Lymon. What’s worse, she, to compete with her rival in love, put on the dressthat she’d set aside for ages and abandoned a lot of qualities that made her sopowerful in the first place. Finally, the ultimate fight between her and men groupcame. Due to Lymon’s betrayal, she was knocked to the floor of the cafe, desperate and powerless. Not only was her property destroyed and stolen, but she lost her will tolive her life. Imprisoning herself in the house, she lost all vigor and soon turned into asexless walking dead. From the very beginning, Amelia was destined to lose the fightin that this was a mismatched fight between one single woman and the wholepatriarchy and that the female weaknesses patriarchy seeped into her as she grew upin the society prevented her from the slimmest chance to win.