Plot Summary

The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers is a novel about a 12-year-old girls and her struggle for acceptance.  Frankie Addams wants nothing more than to be part of something.  As she looks around her, everyone is a part of something, where she feels she belongs to nothing.  Frankie's father is a jeweler and her mother dies during child birth.  While growing up, Frankie was very naive to her own emotions; the loss of her mother could have had an effect on her.  In Frankie's longing to belong, Frankie grasps onto the thought of getting out of town and living with her brother, Jarvis, and his soon to be wife, Janice.  The novel takes place in late August over a period of two days. 

    In the start of the novel character personalities are introduced.  Frankie starts off with explaining her fears and her confusion on some aspects of life.  The reader is then introduced to Bernice, who is the housekeeper, and John Henry, Frankie's younger cousin.  Much of Frankie's times is spent with bother Bernice and John Henry, playing cards and talking about different topics.  Frankie wasn't accepted by the older girls and didn't fit in under any group.  Frankie's emotions come across as masked jealousy which is expressed often through anger.  In the first chapter, Frankie asks John Henry to sleep over because he looks scared; when in actuality Frankie wants someone to sleep next to her, being alone is one of her fears.  McCuller gives much background information on Frankie.  She reveals how much Frankie longs to belong to something.  Frankie tried to become a part of the army, but she was too young.  Her sexual experiences are talked about, as well as her hopes to become more worldly.

    Throughout the period of two days, McCuller changes time frames often.  The story will start by taking place in the morning, skip to the evening and back to the morning to describe the events of the day.  On Saturday afternoon Frankie decided to change her name to F. Jasmine; in hopes to sound older and also have a name beginning with "JA" like her brother and fiancé, Janice.  Frankie spend her entire Saturday afternoon traveling throughout the town telling everyone she came across of her plans to get out of the town and about the wedding planned for the following night.  F. Jasmine wanted people to notice her sudden change into maturity.  However, no one notice, including her father.  F. Jasmine stopped into her fathers jewelry store and she was informed of her Uncle Charles's death.  F. Jasmine took the news lightly trying to react in a mature manner and soon carried on with her walk across the town.  After heard  the news about her uncle, F. Jasmine encounters a soldier and converses with him in a nearby bar.  They have a drink and small talk, F. F. Jasmine agrees to meet him again later that night for a more official date. 

After her meeting with the soldier, F. Jasmine returns home and has dinner with Bernice and John Henry.  Bernice talks of her four marriages and the conversations branches into a conversation about what they would do and change if they were God.  All John Henry wants is a world of good food to ea; Bernice envisions a world where there is no racism and F. Jasmine sees a world where people can change their gender as they please.  Many nights were spent this way, eating a long sit down dinner and talking about everything imaginable.

After dinner F. Jasmine leaves for her date with the shoulder but first she stops to have her fortune read by Big Mamma. F. Jasmine learns that she will take a journey the following day but it won’t turn out the way that she hopes it to.  With this in mind, she carries on to meet the soldier at the bar.  Once again they sit down for a drink but this time he talks F. Jasmine into going up to his room.  Here he tries to have sex with her but she hits him over the head with a pitcher.  She fears that she has killed him so in fear she sneaks out the window and heads back for her house.

The following day the wedding didn’t go as planned, just as Big Mamma had said.  F. Jasmine told her plans to the newly wedded Jarvis and Janice.  F. Jasmine is send home.  F. Jasmine wanted to be a part of something so bad, that she held onto the thought of living with her brother in his new found happiness.  Once again, F. Jasmine couldn’t be a part of it.  She feels so rejected that she wants to get away.  She steals her fathers gun and attempts to run away except the police pick her up before she can get very far.

The entire novel is over a time period of two days, the build up to the wedding and the wedding itself.  Except the reader learns much about F. Jasmine’s past and the three months that follow the wedding are briefly described. F. Jasmines plans were crushed and she couldn’t be a “member of the wedding” F. Jasmine changed her name once again, but this time to Francis.  She still wanted to prove to people that she could act older than she was so she believed that a more mature sounding name would help.  Francis still wasn’t who she wanted to be, but things changed in the three months that followed the wedding.  She got a new friend, Mary Littlejohn, and prepared to move away with her father.  Bernice quit and was getting remarried.  Not only did Frances lose Bernice but also she lost John Henry as well to Meningitis.  This brought up more confusion in her struggle to find self worth and her travel through adolescence.  Francis learned how to live like day by day and not depend so much on what’s going to happen in the future. 

After her meeting with the soldier, F. Jasmine returns home and has dinner with Bernice and John Henry.  Bernice talks of her four marriages and the conversations branches into a conversation about what they would do and change if they were God.  All John Henry wants is a world of good food to ea; Bernice envisions a world where there is no racism and F. Jasmine sees a world where people can change their gender as they please.  Many nights were spent this way, eating a long sit down dinner and talking about everything imaginable.

After dinner F. Jasmine leaves for her date with the shoulder but first she stops to have her fortune read by Big Mamma. F. Jasmine learns that she will take a journey the following day but it won’t turn out the way that she hopes it to.  With this in mind, she carries on to meet the soldier at the bar.  Once again they sit down for a drink but this time he talks F. Jasmine into going up to his room.  Here he tries to have sex with her but she hits him over the head with a pitcher.  She fears that she has killed him so in fear she sneaks out the window and heads back for her house.

The following day the wedding didn’t go as planned, just as Big Mamma had said.  F. Jasmine told her plans to the newly wedded Jarvis and Janice.  F. Jasmine is send home.  F. Jasmine wanted to be a part of something so bad, that she held onto the thought of living with her brother in his new found happiness.  Once again, F. Jasmine couldn’t be a part of it.  She feels so rejected that she wants to get away.  She steals her fathers gun and attempts to run away except the police pick her up before she can get very far.

The entire novel is over a time period of two days, the build up to the wedding and the wedding itself.  Except the reader learns much about F. Jasmine’s past and the three months that follow the wedding are briefly described. F. Jasmines plans were crushed and she couldn’t be a “member of the wedding” F. Jasmine changed her name once again, but this time to Francis.  She still wanted to prove to people that she could act older than she was so she believed that a more mature sounding name would help.  Francis still wasn’t who she wanted to be, but things changed in the three months that followed the wedding.  She got a new friend, Mary Littlejohn, and prepared to move away with her father.  Bernice quit and was getting remarried.  Not only did Frances lose Bernice but also she lost John Henry as well to Meningitis.  This brought up more confusion in her struggle to find self worth and her travel through adolescence.  Francis learned how to live like day by day and not depend so much on what’s going to happen in the future.