The Member of the Wedding

The Member of the Wedding Summary | Part 1 Summary

It is mid-August in Alabama. Frankie Addams, age 12, is not a member of anything. She has spent most of her summer in the kitchen with her 6-year-old cousin John Henry and the cook, Bernice, feeling hot, bored, and afraid.

Frankie has a number of fears. For one thing, Frankie is sincerely afraid that she is going to grow to be over 9 feet tall. This summer, she's grown 4 inches, and she won't be 13 until November. If she keeps growing until she's 18, Frankie thinks, she'll be a circus freak.

Until April of this year, Frankie had been like other people. She belonged to a club and was in the 7th grade. She worked at her father's jewelry shop on Saturday mornings and went to the show on Saturday afternoon. She used to sleep in bed with her father, but it wasn't because she was afraid. Until April, she wasn't the kind of person to think of being afraid.

In April, though, Frankie became concerned about the world, which was embroiled in World War II. It seemed to her cracked and broken beyond repair. She was sorry she couldn't be a Marine. She tried to donate blood, but they said she was too young. Frankie wasn't afraid of the German or Japanese, but she was upset because the war didn't include her. It made her feel separate from the whole world. After she couldn't donate blood, Frankie knew that she ought to leave town and go far away.

Another day in April, Frankie's father teased her and said she was too big to sleep with him anymore. She began sleeping in her own room upstairs, but it hurt her feelings. Now, she and her father are awkward with each other, and she has a little grudge against him.

That spring, all kinds of things had begun to hurt Frankie that never used to hurt her before. Just seeing a sunset or hearing a voice call outdoors after dark caused an aching feeling. It was an ache that left her wondering who she was and what she would grow up to be. First, she tried being silly and playful, but it did not relieve the ache.

Frankie then became a criminal. She carried her father's pistol all over town and shot up his cartridges in an empty lot. She even shoplifted a pocketknife from Sears and Roebuck. One Saturday, she committed a strange "sin" with Barney MacKean in his garage. Frankie didn't know exactly what it was, but afterward, she couldn't look anyone in the eye and wanted to kill Barney.

By the end of the summer, Frankie no longer thinks of the war, and she doesn't leave home very much. She's afraid of Barney, her father and the Law, but she tries not to think about them. She's determined not to hurt anymore. She spends her days eating, writing shows, playing bridge with Bernice and John Henry, and throwing knives against the side of the garage.

There's really no one else to play with. Frankie's best friend, Evelyn Owen, has moved to Florida. A group of older girls that used to include Frankie have formed a club that doesn't include her. Even her cat Charlie has run away. Frankie has no one left and no reason to stay in town. She packed her suitcase weeks ago, but can't think where to go.

Now, however, something has Frankie's interest and attention. She has learned that her brother Jarvis is to be married in Winter Hill this Sunday, and she and her father are going to the wedding. Jarvis, a soldier, has come back from a 2-year stint in Alaska. He brought his fiancée Janice to the house to make the announcement. Frankie thinks they are meant to be because both their names begin with JA. She wishes her name began that way, too, so she could be one of them.

To think of Jarvis and Janice driving away from her gives Frankie a pain. Even though they left hours ago after making their announcement, Frankie can still feel them going away from her. She remembers her cat Charlie and says to Bernice, "It looks to me like everything has just walked off and left me."

Suddenly, Frankie announces to Bernice that she is going to run away. After the wedding, Frankie says, she'll not come back here to live. Bernice doesn't take this announcement very seriously and teases Frankie about having a crush on the wedding. Once Frankie has this idea, though, it relieves the ache in her heart, and she feels she knows where she belongs. She belongs with Jarvis and Janice.

When Bernice leaves for the evening, and the house is quiet, Frankie remembers the Marlowes. Frankie's mother had died when she was born, and Frankie's grandmother came and took care of her. When Frankie was 9, her grandmother died, and Frankie's father rented the extra bedroom to Mr. and Mrs. Marlowe. This couple fascinated Frankie. When they were away from home, she used to go look at all their belongings.

One Sunday afternoon, however, Frankie saw Mr. Marlowe having some sort of fit next to Mrs. Marlowe's corset on the bed. She ran to tell Bernice, who slammed the bedroom door and said the Marlowes were common people. Mr. Addams evicted them, and Frankie didn't understand why, although she knew it had something to do with the fit.

Remembering all this, Frankie is walking over to John Henry's house after dark, when she suddenly finds words for how she feels about her brother and the bride. "They are the we of me," she tells herself. Frankie feels that she has spent all of her life alone, as an "I," but now that she has seen the wedding couple, she feels that she is a member of a "we."

Once at John Henry's, Frankie becomes angry, because he doesn't feel like sleeping over at her house. She screams that she only invited him because he looked "so ugly and lonesome." This surprises John Henry, because he doesn't feel a bit lonesome. Frankie wants to leave when she hears this, but instead, begins jabbering about her wedding plans. Then, a horn begins to play. First it plays sad and low, then a jazzy tune, and then the blues song again. It hurts Frankie when the horn breaks off its playing in the middle of the tune. It squeezes her heart until John Henry asks her where she intends to go after the wedding. Frankie feels her heart break open into two wings, and she finally knows. She will go with her brother and the bride wherever they go. "I love the two of them so much," she tells John Henry. Frankie feels that the questions about what will become of her and who she is are solved. She is no longer afraid.