Frankie

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 Frankie Addams: A View of Adolescent Development
 By Gwendolyn J. Couch

 Introduction

        The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, is a story of adolescent
turbulence and frustration.  The plot, which is limited to a few days in the
life of a twelve-year-old-girl, explores the search for identity, the yearning
for love and belonging, and the inequity of life.  Frankie Addam's life is
lacking in the excitement of external events.  She is stuck in a world that is
flat and dull, yet does not understand the "suddenness" of the changes in her
adolescent world.  She spends most of her summer days in the company of the
black housekeeper, Berenice, and her six-year-old cousin, John Henry.  She
refuses to consider this threesome a "group" since they have been forced
together due to circumstances.  Berenice has one blue, glass eye; John Henry
is a small, strange boy who has oversized knees; and Frankie, thinks that she
is too tall for her age.  Frankie would never have chosen this group of
"freaks", which reminds her of the sideshow at the circus.  She is envious of
the beautiful, older girls in town who seem to belong to each other and go out
with boys.  One day, however, her older brother, who does not live at home,
announces that he is to be married.  This announcement transforms Frankie, as
she suddenly finds a way in which to identify with a group: her brother and
the bride.  She is consumed by the thought of becoming a member of this newly
formed trio that will live far away from the confines of her home and her
small town in the South.
        This paper will address the significant changes in the main character of The
Member of the Wedding and relate them to theories of adolescence.  It will be
organized by the three name changes that take place in the story.  The main
character begins the story as "Frankie". As the search for identity and
belonging is explored, she becomes "F. Jasmine". Finally, after the wedding,
when there is the recognition that she will not become a member of the trio,
she becomes "Frances".  Each name change reflects a struggle with identity and
belonging.  As she strives to discover her place in the world, Frankie becomes
consumed by the thought that the wedding will allow her to escape to a place
where people understand her.  She has "fallen in love" with a hopeless
situation: her brother's wedding.
 
 Frankie
        Frankie Addams is a creative and imaginative twelve-year-old girl.  Yet, this
summer, she has lost the ability to entertain herself and she has grown too
tall.  Her legs are so long that she finds it difficult to participate in her
usual summer activities, such as putting on plays in the grape arbor, because
she can no longer fit underneath it.  She feels like a freak and has a wish to
be anybody else except herself.  She is constantly afraid of things that she
cannot explain, especially the "suddenness" of the physical and psychological
changes she is experiencing.   "The name for what had happened to her Frankie
did not know, but she could feel her squeezed heart beating against the table
edge" (McCullers, 1946, p. 4). 
Until this summer, she had been a member of a group of older girls.  However,
she was dismissed from this group because her behavior changed and she became
"too young and too mean".  Because there is no other alternative, she has been
spending her summer days in the company of Berenice and John Henry.  She
refuses to think of this as a "group" to which she belongs since she did not
join it.  In order to be a member of a club or group, one must be invited to
join.  She is fearful, however, of being asked to join other undesirable
groups.  For example, as she surveys her long-legged body in the mirror, she
attempts to assuage her fear of becoming a member of the Freak Show at the
circus: "She was afraid of all the Freaks, for it seemed to her that they had
looked at her in a secret way and tried to connect their eyes with hers, as
though to say: we know you" (McCullers,1946, p. 18). 
        Clearly, Frankie has conflicting views about her ideal self and her actual
self.  Harter's (as cited in Dacey & Kenny, 1997) descriptions of the changes
in self-concept are applicable in this case.  Frankie appears to be defining
herself by her physical characteristics, and, therefore, has a rather concrete
view of her self-concept.  However, she also has the ability to look inside
herself to explore her thoughts: "Things she had never noticed before began to
hurt her: home lights watched from the evening sidewalks, an unknown voice
from an alley. She was afraid of these things that made her suddenly wonder
who she was, and what she was going to be in the world, and why she was
standing at that minute, seeing a light, or listening, or staring up into the
sky: alone" (McCullers, 1946, p. 22).  This suggests that she is moving from
Piaget's (as cited in Dacey & Kenny, 1997) stage of concrete operational
thought, and that external view of her self-concept, to the more abstract view
found in formal operational thought, and the ability to imagine her self as
she would like it to be.
        It is interesting to consider Frankie's intense need to belong to a group in
relation to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (as cited in Dacey & Kenny, 1997).
Having her physiological and safety needs met, Frankie has progressed to the
third level in which she wants and needs to feel that she belongs somewhere in
this world.  She is struggling to find a place where she is accepted and
loved.  Clearly, Frankie does not yet recognize the value of her relationship
with Berenice and John Henry, and looks beyond her own home to find an
alternate place where she can belong. She discards all options as she suddenly
understands and defines her new relationship with her brother and the bride:
"But the old Frankie had had no we to claim, unless it would be the terrible
summer we of her and John Henry and Berenice - and that was the last we in the
world she wanted.  Now all this was suddenly over with and changed.  There was
her brother and the bride, and it was as though when first she saw them
something she had known inside of her: They are the we of me" (McCullers,
1946, pp. 39-40).  Frankie suddenly feels that she has been invited to join a
group.  This sense of belonging allows her to define a new part of her self.
She appears to be calmer and does not seem so frustrated by the unanswered
questions that have plagued her for most of the summer.  Now that she has the
new we of her brother and the bride, she has an opportunity to broaden her
horizons and to leave her small town. 

 F. Jasmine

        F. Jasmine is a girl who feels included.  Because of the wedding, she feels
connected to everything she sees.  Even the old streets of her town offer her
new experiences.  She suddenly feels grown up, as if this new membership makes
her height and her "meanness" more acceptable.  She no longer wishes to wear
the clothes of a child, rather, she puts on her best organdy dress, lipstick
and perfume to go shopping for a new dress for the wedding.  Her journey into
town is like none other she has previously experienced.  F. Jasmine finds that
she is eager to tell everyone she sees about the wedding, as if it will
connect her to the adult world.  Her occupation this day is to explain about
her brother and the bride and also about her own plans.  Her plans seem to
solidify with each telling of the story.  However, it is also on this day
before the wedding that F. Jasmine enters into a potential sexual encounter
that alarms her.
        F. Jasmine ends up in a forbidden place to children that day: the Blue Moon.
Here, she orders coffee (because it is a grown person's drink) and begins to
tell her story to the bartender. A soldier, whom she recognized from an
incident earlier that day, asks her out on a date for that evening and F.
Jasmine accepts.  However, she begins to feel concerned that she is in over
her head.  "The very word, date, was a grown word used by older girls.  But
here there was a blight upon her pleasure.  If he knew she was not yet
thirteen, he would never have invited her, or probably never joined with her
at all.  There was a troubled sense, a light uneasiness" (McCullers, 1946, p.
69).   Nevertheless, F. Jasmine keeps the date later that evening, but not
before she attempts to have a discussion about love with Berenice.  It is at
this time that Berenice begins to treat F. Jasmine with the respect due to an
older person.  Although they speak of love and sex in rather abstract terms,
there is a new connection between them, not unlike that of a girl and her
mother.  "The old Frankie had never admitted love.  Yet here F. Jasmine was
sitting at the table with her knees crossed, and now and then she patted her
bare foot on the floor in an accustomed way, and nodded at what Berenice was
saying.  Furthermore, when she reached out quietly toward the Chesterfield
package . . . Berenice did not slap her hand away, and F. Jasmine took herself
a cigarette.  She and Berenice were two grown people smoking at the dinner
table" (McCullers, 1946, p. 95). 
        Despite her sinking feeling about the prospect of her date with the soldier,
F. Jasmine follows through with her plans to meet him.  Naturally, the soldier
leads her up to his rented room and expects a sexual encounter.  Instead of
viewing him as the adult with whom she had connected in the morning, F.
Jasmine realizes that he is "unjoined" and ugly.  As he makes advances toward
her, she becomes uneasy. She feels the "forewarning hush that comes before an
unknown trouble, a silence caused, not by lack of sounds, but by a waiting, a
suspense" (McCullers, 1946, p. 130).  As she struggles to break away from the
soldier, she bites his tongue and smashes a glass pitcher of water over his
head.  She becomes free of him and escapes the situation not knowing whether
or not she has truly injured this man.
        It is interesting to consider F. Jasmine's sexual development at this point
in the novel. In applying the work done by Brooks-Gunn and Paikoff (as cited
in Dacey & Kenny, 1997), F. Jasmine seems to be facing two of the four
developmental challenges at this stage in her sexual development.  First, she
is trying to understand and accept her sexual feelings and needs for the first
time.  Her conversation with Berenice underscores her desire to comprehend the
changes that are taking place.  Second, although she is becoming aware of
healthy sexual feelings, she is clearly not comfortable with engaging in
sexual behaviors with a partner at this time.  She realizes that she is uneasy
about going on the date with the soldier, yet she does not prevent herself
from actually meeting him.  On the other hand, F. Jasmine is unwilling to
fully engage in the adult sexual behavior that the soldier expects and,
therefore, shows healthy sexual development because she refuses to be coerced
into participating in an act with which she is uncomfortable. 
        It is also interesting to note how this sexual development affects F.
Jasmine's sense of the world.  On the afternoon before the wedding, she,
Berenice and John Henry played, "Holy Lord God", a game in which each person
discusses how the world would be if she/he were God.  Whereas the old Frankie
made freaks acceptable and allowed people to join any group they wanted to
(even women joining the army), F. Jasmine's world allows people to change
instantly back and forth from boys to girls whenever they want to.  Bem (as
cited in Dacey & Kenny, 1997) believes that "we would all be much better off
if we were to become more androgynous" (p. 197).  Although Frankie was afraid
of the androgynous freak at the sideshow, F. Jasmine seems to understand that
a world that accepts both male and female characteristics in one person is a
wonderful place to live.  It is possible that F. Jasmine will be better off
psychologically with this point of view. 
         F. Jasmine's spiritual development is also apparent at this point.  She
engages in conversations and behaviors that show that she is in Fowler's
(1981) stage 3 of spiritual development.  F. Jasmine goes to the other side of
town on the night before the wedding to have her fortune told.  It is here
that she is told that a departure and a return are in her near future.  Since
the return trip does not belong in her plans she is reluctant to believe in
this fortune, yet she believes that it is impossible to argue with a
fortuneteller. The belief that authority is "located externally to the self"
(Fowler, 1981, p. 154) is shown in F. Jasmine's inability to truly question
the authority of the fortuneteller.  In addition, she tends to believe in
"signs" from God.  For example, F. Jasmine becomes frustrated by the fact that
the piano tuner, who tunes the piano next door for almost an entire day, will
not complete the scale. The afternoon on which she realizes that she will
become a member of the wedding, the piano tuner finally resolves the scale.
She looks at this as a symbol that her life is finally complete with the "we"
of her brother and the bride.  This increased awareness of symbolism in her
life is also reflective of stage 3 spiritual development.  According to
Fowler, "the symbols expressive of their deepest meanings and loyalties are
not separable from the what they symbolize" (1981, p. 163).  In this stage,
symbols have an inherent power of their own. Therefore, the symbolism of the
resolution of the scale gives new meaning to F. Jasmine's life.
        As F. Jasmine ends the long day prior to the wedding, she is filled with a
sense of relief that upon waking, she will be leaving this town.  However,
waiting for the next day to arrive makes her feel extremely restless.  She is
unable to sleep and anticipates the new experiences that lay ahead.

 Frances

Frances hates herself and she wants the world to die.  "The wedding was like a
dream outside her own power, or like a show unmanaged by her in which she was
supposed to have no part" (McCullers, 1946, p. 138).  The bitter recognition
that her brother and the bride are a "we" unto themselves, and that there are
no plans to include her, sends Frances into a downward spiral.  Although
Berenice attempts to liven Frances' spirits by planning a grown-up party for
her, these "baby promises rasp[ed] her nerves" (p. 139).  That night, she runs
away from home.  She takes her father's pistol and escapes to the Blue Moon
while she waits for her train to arrive.  She no longer feels the connection
with the bartender who, only yesterday, was the first person she told about
the wedding.  She feels frightened by the prospect of going out into the world
alone and wishes that she could join with someone to give her more courage.
As she waits for her train, a police officer locates her and indicates that he
needs to call her father.  "It was not plain just what she was captured for,
and the crimes of the long spring and summer merged together as one guilt
which she had lost the power to understand.  It was as though the things that
she had done, the sins committed, had all been done by someone else - a
stranger a long time ago" (p. 147).  Frances' father then arrives at the Blue
Moon to bring her home.
        As the season moves from summer to fall, several significant events occur
which further shape Frances' life.  John Henry dies rather suddenly of
meningitis, Berenice decides to marry, and Frances finds a new friend.  This
friend, Mary Littlejohn (reminiscent of John Henry), has lived abroad, loves
poetry and art, and is totally devoted to Frances, as she is to Mary.  Frances
and her father will be moving into a house with John Henry's parents.
        This final view of Frances is indicative of the balance that she is beginning
to find in Erikson's (1985) stage 5, Identity vs. Identity Confusion.  There
is evidence that Frances is working to become a loyal and committed friend.
She has a greater sense of self worth, partially because she finally has a
peer who recognizes her positive personal characteristics.  As Harter (as
cited in Dacey & Kenny, 1997) indicates, a positive self-concept and positive
self-esteem are greatly affected by the social acceptance by peers.  It is
also through this relationship that Frances begins to attempt to become more
independent from the adults in her life.  Although Berenice, the mother
figure, is leaving to marry T. T., Frances does not mourn this loss.  She is
rather egocentric in her thinking about her new life.  She is able to consider
only how important her own plans are and does not consider the effects of the
loss of Berenice because she is still alive, unlike John Henry.  This is an
indication that she does not yet have the ability to view her life from other
perspectives.  As Selman (as cited in Dacey & Kenny, 1997) points out,
perspective taking is an important part of cognitive and moral development in
adolescence.  It appears that Frances has not reached this level of cognition
in this aspect of her life. As long as her needs are being fulfilled through
her friendship with Mary, she does not seem to need the parental influence of
Berenice as she once had.  Even though Berenice will no longer be a daily
influence in her life, the implication is that she will still be available to
Frances if necessary.  Frances has, however, spent some time reflecting on
John Henry's death.  Although she does not dwell on the significance of this
death, she occasionally experiences a silence that disturbs her: "It was
seldom now that she felt his presence - solemn, hovering, and ghost-gray.
Only occasionally after twilight time or when the special hush would come into
the room" (McCullers, 1946, p. 153).  Yet, after the craziness of the summer,
Frances appears to be much calmer.  There is no longer the same sense of
urgency and suddenness in her life.  She shows greater signs of maturity after
her recent experiences, but she still has quite a road to travel.

 
Conclusion

        It appears that Frances finally becomes the synthesis of the conflicted and
unresolved sides of Frankie/F. Jasmine's personality.  Frankie/F.
Jasmine/Frances' inner world is a combination of experience and imagination
that can, at times be a source of frustration for her.  However, this inner
world also provides the spark of energy that inspires her to move ahead with
her life and new relationships after suffering from the defeat the wedding.
According to Pipher (1994), it is the "struggle to find a self, the attempt to
integrate the past and the present and to find a place in the larger culture"
(Pipher, 1994, p. 54) that is the internal work of adolescence.  This is
apparent in Frankie/F. Jasmine's struggle to discover her true self.   Frances
just might be the reward: a calmer, more well adjusted girl, who no longer
needs a great deal of excitement, but finds some stability in a loving and
solid peer relationship that will help her to weather the storm.


 References
        Dacey, J. & Kenny, M. (Eds.) (1997). Adolescent Development. Dubuque, Iowa:
WBC Brown and Benchmark.

        Erikson, E. H. (1985). The Life Cycle Completed. New York: W.W. Norton and
Company.

        Fowler, J. W. (1981).  Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development
and the Quest for Meaning. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.

        McCullers, C. (1946). The Member of the Wedding. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin
Company.

        Pipher, M.(1994).  Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.
New York: Ballentine Books.