POST: The Member of the Wedding -- First Response (9/30)

Please post a paragraph about some aspect of the early part of this novel (reactions to a character, a moment, the overall atmosphere, a symbol, and idea). Make sure your paragraph is thoughtful and well-written.

The author has a way of describing characters, for example she writes clues and hints showing what their life was or is like. Like she hinted that Frankie is a loser who got kicked out of her own clubhouse and now only has her 7 year old cousin and her maid. Also that she doesn't have a high self esteem, she doesn't like herself that much because she is really tall for her age and she doubts her chances of making friends.

Although Frankie is desperate to live and travel with the couple, I predict that they will not want Frankie to live with them. Frankie tells everybody in town that she will be traveling with her brother and his bride, but I do not think they will want to "adopt" her. Frankie's belief that she will live with the couple seems to make her at peace with the world and less paranoid about her life. She claims that she will kill herself if the couple rejects her and she has to return home after the wedding. I am sure the couple will reject her, and she will be forced to return home, but she will not commit suicide. I believe she will be a less paranoid person, and will be more content with her life, despite the fact that she does not get to leave her hometown.

I see Frankie alot like myslef at a younge age. Instead of tall, i was very short and got picked on for it. Although i was athletic, my height was always a hadicap. I began to mope around the house and do nothing for days at a time. It all changed for me when i grew taller in 7th grade. I think what happens to frakie is what happened to me, the beginning will be dramatic and sad, but the ending will be happy.

Carson McCullers does an exceptional job in explaining the difficult days of growing up. I love all of her wild analogies because they create vivid images of the setting.
Frankie has a hard time dealing with loneliness and the fact that she has to accept herself for who she is.
I think that she has too high of hopes and is going to be dissapointed.

I think the author does a really good job describing the childhood of Frankie. She gives little hints that leads you to conclusions about Frankie. For example, the book says that she spends all her time with a seven year old boy and has sleepovers with him all the time. But when the author explaines that there is a groups of teenage girls that are about her age that have sleepovers every sat. with boys, I tend to think,"Why ins't she part of that group?" especially when the book says that she used to be part of the group but they kicked her out. I'm curious to know why she doesn't have any friends...what did she do to deserve being kicked out of a group of girls that were her only real friends.

In this story, the author creates a dark mood which reflects upon the main character, Frankie. Frankie is a 12 year old girl who is very tall for her age and she thinks she is a freak. She is not part of anything in her life and she is a misfit. Her brother left for Alaska, her best friend moved to Florida and she got kicked out of a club because she did not fit in. Frankie has a dream of going around the world and wants to run away but doesn't know where to go.

With her brother getting married to his fiancee Janice, and all the changes both physically and mentally, of growing up, Frankie is feeling lost, confused and depressed. In one part of the story, Bernice tells Frankie that's she just jealous of the new couple, but Frankie denys it. I think Frankie is jealous of her brother and his fiancee. I think she feels like she's not getting any acceptance from the kids her own age, and like nothing is going to happen to her while she's staying in her hometown. She probably thinks that if she travels to different places like her brother, then maybe she'd find people who would accept her as the awkward person she is. I also think she's jealous of Janice because maybe she wishes she was to be just like Janice.

After reading only about a third of this novel, it is very evident that Frankie is living her life in a dark, hard world. The author, Carson McCullers, did an outstanding job explaining Frankie's misunderstood life. Frankie is trying to deal with the physical and emotional changes of growing up, as well as trying to find somewhere to fit in. Frankie has no friends her own age, just a maid and her seven-year-old cousin. In the beginning, when her cousin asked her if she wanted to go play outside with some other kids, Frankie said no quickly. This got me thinking about why she felt so strongly about not going outside. It's clear that Frankie feels out of place, but did she have a bad experience with some kids before that made her reluctant to go hang out with them? Do the kids not like her? So far, The Member of the Wedding is very good.

After reading the first fourteen pages of The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, I can easily infer what Frankie's basic characteristics and personality traits are. She is some-what a tomboy, with her extremely short hair and unflattering clothing. When she looks in the mirror, she probably does not like what she sees. She is lonely and self-conscious. Her best friend is a little boy who is about five years younger than she is. The only people that came close to being her friends made her an outcast by excluding her from their club. Now that she is becoming a teenager, she probably has a lot of mixed emotions about her image and her popularity. The fact that she was so excited to go to Alaska and see her brother tells me that she does not get to travel much or do many exciting activities. Carson McCullers does a great job of developing Frankie to be a character that many teenagers can relate to.

The character, Frankie, reminds me of several girls i know. She seems very unhappy with herself, and she has very low self-esteem. Shes one of those girls considered to be a "tom-boy." She is very unsatisfied with the way her body looks, and with her short hair. She only has two friends, her 7 year old cousin, and her maid. I think theres a time in everyones life where they feel unhappy with the way the look, and this is why many people can connect with Frankie.

In the story, I think that the author does a very good job of making Frankie come alive. She makes her a very complex and interesting character that I find easy to identify with. The author's style of writing surprised me at first, but then after I kept reading I found it easier and easier to read. Carson McCullers writes a great description of the town and Frankie's house. She sets the mood by making the town sort of gloomy and lonely, and she makes me think about how Frankie must feel in a town so hot and sticky and lonely. She almost makes me feel bad for Frankie, but then Frankie's character has a way of making me have confidence in her.

The first chapter of this book was definitely very enticing. I loved how the author was able to grasp our attention by making us wonder what Frankie is going to do next. She does an exceptional job of depicting Frankie's "miserable" life. Frankie is so depressed and grim, and it is so interesting to read more and more about her mood changes and her pessimism towards life. I really enjoy reading this book because I love how the author makes us feel as though we are living Frankie's life. I can't wait to see what happens next!!

The way Frankie acts and how she is described makes me picture her as a very self-centered person. All she does is think about how horrible her life is and how she can't fit in. I believe her jealousy towards her brother and fiance is a bit extreme. Maybe she is jealous because they are all she can never be. When she thinks about moving away with the couple, she gets all excited and full of life. She didn't take the time to think about how they would react or what they would do when they figure out what she's trying to do. As I read the book, I hope to see some events that will help her grow into a person who can like herself more as a person.

Frankie seems to be a selfish and bossy person on the outside. She feels depressed and pities herself because she is too tall and is rejected by the club. She was probably kind before she lost her friends, but now she is meaner. Frankie only has two friends and it doesn't look like she gets along with them perfectly.

I see Frankie as kind of self-centered. I know thats kind of harsh and jumping to conclusions, but i think she think about herself too much. I also think that Frankie if mean to John Henry and doesn't show too much respect towards Berenice. I also think that she is caring because of how she acted in the scene where she has the sleepover with John Henry and she licks him behing the ear (yuck) and sleeps close to him. I think that Frankie likes John Henry, but just doesnt show it.

Frankie clearly lacks confidence. She's self-conscious about her long arms and legs resulting in her being very tall; taller than all the other girls her age. She's also aware of the fact that her hair cut makes her look somewhat like a boy. I think in the end of the story she will come to realize that pleasing other people and being beautiful isn't something she should value.

I think we've all been some version of Frankie in our lives. Whether its the young, rebellious, and lonely Frankie or the mature F. Jasmine. I could relate a lot to Frankie going through the awkward stages of being a teenager. Although her problems like being tall with short hair were different from mine, I could totally understand some of her feelings. With all these similarities and the very discriptive writing of Carson McCullers, I could see the viewpoints of Bernice and John Henry through Frankie's eyes.

Personally, I find Frankie to be one of the most self-centered people ever. All sahe does is lament over howhorrible and akward her life is currently. Furthermore, she has gone into such a dilirious state that she even gets mad at people, namely John and Berenice, whenthey give her sensical advice as to how she could better herself and hewr life. Furthermore, I believe that her little fantasy world where Frankie will be "adopted" by her brother and future sister-in-law is insane. They do not want to let her tag along wherever they go. Basically, they want their own lives, not that of Frankies. Because of this I believe that in the end Frankie shall be pushed to the brink of despair and agony after the wedding is all said and done. In sum, I believe that Frankie is out of her mind and will hence only meet with despair, agony, and pain rather than the happiness she foretells.

Eh.... made a mistake

It had some times where it was really slow, but at other times i couldnt put it down, like when she was gonna kill herself. at That part i was so curious i just couldnt put it down.

After reading the first part of the novel, it is clear that the protagonist is described by McCullers as a confused and lonely character. Frankie does not like her name, nor does she like her appearance, yet she is self-centered and ignores advice given to her. She is hubristic when she is complimented and exaggerates her glory. On the contrary, when she does not receive adulation, she feels that she is nothing and will become nothing in the world. She always complains about her life and how much she yearns to escape her town. She plans to escape with her brother and his bride and is convinced that they will be happy for the rest of their lives. I believe that her ideas are quixotic because she is impervious to the truth and contrition. She wants to be complimented but is afraid of hearing the truth. Likewise, it is hard for her to feel regret when she does wrong, hence, she does not learn from her mistakes. Frankie does not listen to Berenice when she attempts to warn her that her idea was impractical and she was setting up a trap for herself. I could sympathize for Frankie because she was so naive.

Berenice tries to explain to Frankie that she was the only person making her life miserable and that she can change to make it better. She does not listen and persists to think Frankie does not feel regret for her action and does not become a better person. I believe that a lot of us are stubborn like Frankie, however I know we have the ability to improve from our mistakes. Frankie does not seem to have a drop of humanity in her and from this I can infer that her decisions are not rational. I think that her horizons are grim and that she would not find happiness traveling the path that she is. Her brother and his bride would not let her become a full member of their lives because their lives were separate from hers. She would not always be happy with them and they would not always be together as Frankie had imagined. She jumped to conclusions too quickly and made promises she couldn't keep, believing that there was room for her in the marriage. In the end, she would be doomed to live with the mistakes she made.

So far this book has amazed me as well as the author. I really like the author's writing style of describing the characters in her book. She does not give the whole background of the character in one page, but describes the character bit by bit throught the book. So far by looking at the evidence from the text i could tell that Frnkie is a very self-centered, miserable, confused, jealous, lonely type of girl. She only cares about herself and not about the others around her like Berenice and her cousin john Henry. She also seems to worry to much about the wedding and really wishes to with her brother after the wedding.

I like how the author gives good descriptions of what is going on without actually saying it flat out. Like when he talks about how sweaty the people are but he never actually comes out and says that it's hot there. Also, when he says she spent her summers alone, or when the dialogue from Frankie expresses that she has been abandoned by her friends, the author never calls her a loser or a failure, but leaves it to the reader to figure for themselves.