McCullers' life.

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McCuller's Home for Christmas

I chose the short piece of non-fiction “Home for Christmas” by Carson McCullers as a very good example of narrative-descriptive prose. Even though Home for Christmas is an excerpt from her autobiography, the piece itself has a life of its own.
Structurally and literarily speaking, I would dare say that the piece can be considered as a tour de force by the author. In these few paragraphs she manages to convey her deepest feelings and recollections of what Christmas meant to her and her family, as well as her own private, idiosyncratic rationalization of the meaning of that elusive and fleeting thing that we call Time (with capital letter). All these coupled with beautifully crafted images about all their month by month preparations of their Christmas festivities. Her recollections start in a sort of agony in the month of August, when she depicts her end-of-the-summer boredom, contrasted with the glory of the festivity to come. Her private journey begins right there and it ends just with the festivity itself. We can say that she draws a full circle when she sits in her front porch, tired, exhausted the day after the festivity. Just knowing that she would have to wait for another year. In that precise moment, we can say that her agony starts all over.
Although the timeline that Mrs. McCullers describes is very well cut and linear, the months that she describes are not the regular months of the calendar, but they become just mere stepping stones on her way to the big day. So we could say that the story was organized by seasons, but most of all, by family customs and events, spinning around one particular season: Christmas.
This monthly, detailed account becomes the perfect setting for carefully wrought images that come to life in the mind of the reader. Images that evoke the festivities in our minds, we all have deeply rooted images instilled in our brains, that get triggered by just mere associations to specific smells like that of the pine tree, or homemade roasted turkey and apple pie; or roasted pork and guava pie in my case (I am Cuban). Her eye is that of a sensitive girl looking for self-expression. Knowing that it is the voice of a girl makes a huge difference.
This short piece is a master class of what description is all about. If you still have problems with descriptive sentences go back to this piece of writing and look for detail; if you don’t have problem but still want to wallow in good reading, just go back and read slowly … simply enjoying. Just pronouncing the words in your mind. Mrs. McCuller was a sad, lonely but highly prolific and creative woman who found joy in simple things in life. This excerpt is just a taste of what she could do with her pen. If you want to read good literature I recommend other works by the same author Reflections in a Golden Eye , and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Works.