Carson Mcculler's Early Life

Carson McCullers was a famous American author with interesting works such as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding, and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. This paper will cover her early life, works as an author, and the toll of her adulthood leading all the way to her death. As an author, Carson had to overcome many challenges in her daily life, however, she was not recognized as an extraordinary author until after her death. What made her become recognizable, is the fact that she used “physical deformities” and “grotesque” descriptions along with characters in her books. This all begins with her events as a child, forming her into the quality author she is known for today. Born on February 19, 1917, originally Lula Carson before changing it, in Columbus, Georgia, Carson was born to jewelry store owners. When Carson was a child, she did not aspire to be an author, she aspired to be a pianist. This started at age ten, but this dream did not last long, due to her illness that suddenly sprung up and ruined her music lessons. This illness was known as rheumatic fever, but even this sudden turn of events could not keep her away from going to New york even after she was diagnosed, to continue on her journey to be a pianist. She planned on once she arrived in New York City that she would learn to express herself by studying the intellectual talents of the piano more in depth at Juilliard School of Music. Her dream never took off in New York City, however, due to her exploration of writing during her time on bedrest with rheumatic fever. When she arrived in New York City, she discovered her true passion was writing and gave up the idea of going to Juilliard, going to Columbia and New York University instead. Becoming inspired by her discovery that the musical path was not fit for her, she wrote Wunderkind, dedicating that thought and event and had it published in 1936 when she was only the young age of nineteen years old. During this year after her first short story was published, she was still battling with her rheumatic fever, but also battling with the struggle of marriage. In Columbus, Georgia, where Carson was born, she began to have a steady relationship with a man named James Reeves McCullers, Jr. Like mentioned above, their marriage was a bit on the unsteady side. This was due to the fact that they both became alcoholics, and also due to the fact that Carson seemed peaked with curiosity over her own sexuality. She began to view herself from the perspective that she happened to be “born a man”. One of her works, a poem to be more exact, titled “Twisted Trinity”, gave insight to her being more in depth about her sexuality by revolving the poem around what seems to be a love affair she had on her husband. This was no ordinary love affair in the least, especially for her time period where it was practically forbade by society. Her love affair was with a woman, or women since it occurred multiple times throughout her rocky marriage with James. However, she did …show more content…
Drinking more and more everyday, she sensed a wave of familiar, childhood like events coming back over her. However, as she was still continued writing despite the harsh times that she had happened to face, she created another greatly appreciated novel known as The Ball of the Sad Cafe. Due to her thinking more and more about her childhood and the past in general, she based this story around the Southern setting once again for her hometown and also depicting a “love triangle affair” that, as her audience already knew, occurred shortly before. Even though the marriage between her and her ex-husband James Reeves, he did not seem to stay her ex-husband long. Shortly after the book was published, in 1945, they decided to remarry despite the differences that made their relationship struggle from the beginning. Ever since their divorce prior, they had seemed to keep in close contact and were stronger than ever