Is it all just about acceptance? #5

             Acceptance, we all need it and we all want it. Why? Why do we feel the need to be accepted? When did being accepted by someone else become more of a priority than accepting yourself? This is the theme that I found to be most important in the short story “Sucker” by Carson McCullers. I believe the way McCullers showed acceptance through the struggles between Sucker (Richard), Pete, and Maybelle was very accurate and true.  She demonstrated the struggle of needing to be accepted through two brothers. One, the younger brother Sucker, who just wanted to feel accepted by his older brother Pete. This is what I like to call the younger sibling syndrome, the feeling of needing to live up to or admire the older sibling. Every older sibling knows what I am talking about because we have all had the uncomfortable talk with our moms where she tells us we MUST be on our best behavior because our younger siblings are looking up to us and doing everything that we do. That’s the problem with acceptance, we feel so pressured to get the approval by someone else that we lose who we are. This is why I would recommend this short story to anyone. It gives life lessons without you even realizing it.

While reading this story you are so caught up on the fact that Pete is so rude to Sucker that you may miss the underline theme. In the story Pete says it is Maybelle’s fault for causing the tension and problems between him and Sucker. I totally agree because if Maybelle would have accepted and liked Pete then the two boys would have never fought. Even in the story it says when Maybelle and Pete were getting along, so was Pete and Sucker. Due to Maybelle dropping Pete and not accepting him, in a sense, he became cruel and rude to Sucker.  He felt like he wasn’t being accepted by Maybelle and that’s all he wanted, was to have that feeling of acceptance. So what does he do he despises someone who accepts him because he doesn’t understand why some people like him and some don’t.

Another character that is just looking for acceptance is Sucker; he is looking for the acceptance from his older brother. He was trying to be just like him. He just wanted to know what he was up to in his life and whom he was hanging out with. Sucker wanted more than anything for Pete to like him, “You do like me as much as if I was your own brother, don’t you Pete?” (Sucker, 70). He just wanted Pete to like him and he would have done anything for him just so he would accept him. This is why I think McClluers shows a life lesson that all need to hear. We all need/want to feel accepted but sometimes its hard to admit that to yourself, so reading it was a good wake up call telling us about what the need for acceptance can lead to.