the ballad of the sad cafe

Carson McCullers’ short story, The Ballad Of A Sad Café, is a classic illustration of how love can sometimes be one-sided and the pain that comes from this. In this story, the one-sidedness of love resulted in a love triangle being formed between Miss Amelia, Cousin Lymon, and Marvin Macy.
In the story, Carson McCullers highlights an interesting but often overlooked definition of love. Her definition of love is stated as “Love is the a joint experience between two persons but the fact it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved… love is a solitary thing” (p.26). In other words, McCullers views love as being one sided. The lover loves the beloved but the beloved can come to actually hate the lover at times. The values and quality of any love can only be determined solely by the lover. One can put all that he or she has into love but all that he or she may get out of the love is pain. This situation is qui...