In
Carson McCuller’s short story, “Sucker”, a coming of age plot could almost be
argued versus a particular message trying to be conveyed. Pete, the
protagonist, is sixteen and shares a room with his first cousin, Sucker, who is
four years younger. At the beginning of the story, Pete is a sophomore in high
school, described as a lack luster student, and seems to be a lonely character.
It seems he doesn’t have a close relationship with his parents either and the
only attention he receives in constant admiration from Sucker, which he doesn’t
value at all, “My mother never bothered me because she had the younger kids to
look after. And Sucker thought anything I did was always swell,” (McCullers
69). Pete’s relationship or involvement with other members of his family or
even kids his own age at school is not really described or delved into. The main
focus is his relationship with Sucker which can be summed up in Pete’s
reflection back on the situation, “if a person admires you a lot you despise
him and don’t care—and it is the person who doesn’t notice you that you are apt
to admire,” (McCullers 69). In short, Pete admires and chases after Maybelle, a
beautiful senior girl at his high school. At the beginning, she ignored him and
he in turn ignored or was mean to Sucker. For the brief period that Maybelle
faked interest in Pete, he was nice to Sucker and they grew closer together, “you
understand people better when you are happy than when something is worrying
you,” (McCullers 70). When Maybelle started ignoring Pete again, his
relationship with Sucker went sour and when she told him that she had never
cared about it and for him to leave her alone, he was the meanest to Sucker
than ever before. It important to notice that words as weapons are a motif in
this short story. In Pete and Sucker’s last fight, Pete didn’t yell like usual,
making his words cut Sucker deeper than ever, “if I’d talked loud or hit him it
wouldn’t have been so bad. But my voice was slow and like I was very calm,”
(McCullers 70). Throughout the short story, constant power plays between
characters can be see—Maybelle over Pete and Pete over Sucker until the end
when roles are reversed between the two boys, “I suppose I was mean to him lots
of times. I guess I wanted to ignore somebody like Maybelle did me,” (McCullers
69). You can really see the shift in power at the end when Pete avoids being in
the room with Sucker, is quiet when he is, and tries to only address him by his
real name, Richard.
Personally I would not recommend this short story to a
friend and would rate it three stars out of five. I dislike the character Pete
very much and it hurts my heart every time he is mean to Sucker, a young boy
that is four years younger, quiet, admiring, and his parents had died in a car
accident when he was a baby. All Sucker wants to do his connect with who he
considers his big brother. Even more sad it that Pete knows when what he says
affects Sucker, “you could always tell by Sucker’s face when his feelings were
hurt,” (McCullers 69). So I understand that McCuller is a talented writer and
masterfully uses many literary techniques (such as her strategic use of
silence), hence the three stars. The other two stars not given are because the
piece just does not appeal to my personal taste due to the characters and the
nature of the plot. Also, for how short the piece is, I would expect to be more
“pulled” into the plot, but again my lack of enthusiasm is probably due to my
empathy for Sucker and extreme dislike of Maybelle and Pete.
For
my new media component, I have chosen the song “I’ve Been Watching You” by Rodney
Akins. Although this depicts a relationship between father and son, the
complete admiration and attentiveness reminds me how Sucker views Pete at the
beginning of the short story.
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