“Children love to sleep in houses other than their own, and to eat at a neighbor’s table; on such occassions they behave themselves decently and are proud. The people in town were likewise proud when sitting at the tables in the cafe. They washed before coming to Miss Amelia’s, and scraped their feet very politely on the threshhold as they entered the cafe. There, for a few hours at least, the deep bitter knowing that you are not worth much in this world could be laid low. “
Carson McCullers’s story is set in a dusty, primitive Southern town where life is gnawed to the bone for lack of anything to do. She favors freaks of nature as her main characters: Miss Amelia is lanky and strong, with thick hairy thighs; her Cousin Lymon is an extroverted hunchback whose age and appearance remain an eternal enigma. Together, the two open up a small cafe that brings the people of the town a certain amount of pride they never had before. The cafe becomes a bright spot in an otherwise dreary existence.
People pause to wonder over each other’s lives, tell stories, and find healing through shared meals and moonshine. With the arrival of the hunchaback and the opening of the cafe, Miss Amelia becomes vulnerable to the town in a way that she never was before and the people expect to learn what really happened during her mysterious ten-day marriage to the no-good Marvin Macy. It turns out however that it is not Miss Amelia who pops the biggest surprise in the end, but her odd cousin who appears and disappears along with the existence of the cafe.
The story ends exactly where it began…in a dreary town where there is absolutely nothing to do, and” the soul rots with boredom”. The tune carried on the wind by the chain gang is the nearest form of entertainment to be found in those parts.
