Sucker

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Sucker

• Carson McCullers US 1917-1967

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OUTLINE
Author
Plot
Questions
Theme
Characters
Lessons
Language
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1. About the Author
Carson McCullers was an American writer.
She wrote novels, short stories, and two plays,
as well as essays and some poetry. A series of
strokes she suffered as a child left her partly
paralyzed. She typically set her stories in small
Southern communities and depicted the inner lives
of lonely people. Read more in the NOTE.
(19 Feb 1917 29 Sept 1967)
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2. Plot Summary
I had a cousin nicknamed Sucker sleeping in my
bed with me. I used to take no notice of him.
On the night when my relationship with Maybelle
began to take a favorable turn, I talked a lot
with Sucker and came to understand his loneliness
better and treat him better.
One night after my finish with M, I got so mad at
Sucker and hurt him deeply with humiliating
remarks.
I regreted about what I had done to him, but I
didnt find the courage to get things straight.
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3. Questions about Details

• Why did Sucker come to live with my family?
• How did he get the nickname?
• How did I use to treat him? Give an example.
• When did all this trouble begin?
• When did the real trouble start? Why?
• How did his look change throughout the story?
• Act Suckers entering the cinema.
• Act out the dialogue between S and me that night?
  37-8
• What did I do to make up for the wrong? Why?

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4. The Theme

• Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
  explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and
  outcasts of the South. Her other novels have
  similar themes and are all set in the South.

• "No one has written more feelingly than her
  about the plight of the eccentric, " Kiernan
  contended, "and no one has written more
  understandingly than she about adolescent
  loneliness and desperation."

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5. Character Analysis
Sucker
Pitiful, credulous/trustful, pure-hearted,
lonely, fragile, timid, quiet, etc.
I
Self-centered, concerned about face saving, etc.
Maybelle
Enjoying dressing up, beautiful, etc.
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6. Lessons Learned

• it is the person who doesnt notice you that
  you are apt to admire.
• You understand people better when you are happy
  
• sometimes words cut more than swords.
• Love and reason dont go together.
• A friend who shares is a friend who cares.

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7. Language Points
Expressions
Have to oneself, meddle with, take in, come to,
make out, run after, put my mind on, on my mind,
fool with, get on my nerves, etc.
Sentences
Either she would act almost nice and I would
begin thinking how things would finally clear up
and she would care for meor else she'd behave so
that if she hadn't been a girl I'd have wanted to
grab her by that white little neck and choke her.
Your questions?