Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- It seems clear that the narrator of Ballad has special information about the story they're telling. Do you have a theory about who the narrator might be? Can you find evidence in the text to support it? Why or why not might it matter?
- The nature of the love-relationships described in Ballad is never explicitly stated. Do you think whether or not Miss Amelia and Cousin Lymon are living "in sin" (Ballad.79) has an impact on how you read or interpret the story?
- As with many authors and their fiction, many of the stories in this book make use of Carson McCullers's own life experience. Why might it be important (or not important) to know that, say, McCullers is from a small Georgia town and grew up during the Depression? Or that she spent much of her childhood practicing the piano?
- What do you think the story gains or looses in telling the story from a "present day" moment, not telling it straight, from Miss Amelia's marriage to Marvin Macy to her self-isolation in the falling building?
- What's up with that coda? How does listening to the Twelve Mortal Men change the experience of this parable? Did it change your understanding of what you felt like the story was supposed to mean, or what it was ultimately about?
- Do you think Ballad could have happened the way it did in, say, New York City, in the 2010s? What would be different? What would stay the same?
- If you were going to write a sequel for Miss Amelia, where do you think she'd end up in the years after the story is done? Would she stay in her building, staring out the window mournfully, forever? Or would she get over it and move on? What about Cousin Lymon and Marvin Macy? How long do you see their buddy-tragedy partnership lasting?