Blog 3: Option 5-Sucker

"Sucker" by Carson McCullers is a short piece jam packed with emotions, story lines and teenage angst. I found the narrator of the piece incredibly interesting. He is a young male who acts as a brother figure to young Richard and than suddenly flips on him. I think that a major theme in this piece is the idea of power and what becomes of the person who holds it. In the beginning of the story, the narrator holds all the power. The narrator calls the room that he shares "my room" and explains that Sucker got his nickname because he gave it to him (McCullers, 1). He also explains how Sucker would wear his clothes and strive to be like him. The narrator begins to really embrace his brotherly role,  "I wanted to show Sucker how much I really thought of him and make up for the way J had always treated him" (McCullers, 2). This demonstrates the power that he has over Sucker, he wants to be his role model and make him feel loved, he even begins telling people that Sucker is his kid brother. However, the power dramatically shifts from the narrator to Sucker.

One night, the narrator completely destroys Sucker verbally saying, "you don't know when you're not
wanted. You're too dumb. Just like your name-a dumb Sucker" (McCullers, 3). This statement has a profound effect on Sucker. The figure that he has looked up to is now severely tarnished. Sucker now takes his life and thoughts into his own hands buying his own clothes and making his own friends. This causes stress for the narrator who wishes, "More than anything I want to be easy in my mind again" (McCullers, 3). This shows how the power between the two cousins has now been placed in Sucker's hands.

I think that McCuller is using this piece to show the feelings that one person can bring upon another. Humans innately have power over one another and McCuller demonstrates that the power can be used for good or evil. I think this theme makes the piece slightly spooky considering that the individuals in the text are so young. Both boys are in their teens/early teens and they are able to evoke so much power over one another. Its was also surprising to me that the narrator was able to speak so harshly to Sucker. Both characters had such dark sides for being so young.

I would rate these piece as a 4. I thought that giving a child a power role was incredibly interesting and different. I had never seen a young character act so harsh toward another young character in a piece of literature before. I think that the length made it hard to get into however. It would be nice if this piece was longer, I felt myself wanting more when I was finished reading. I was curious as to how these boys relationship would evolve as they turned into young men.