Stairs, trains, lances. All of these are mentioned in Thomas Foster’s novel, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, in the chapter called “It’s All About Sex...;” which makes it abundantly clear that these objects, and many more, can allude to or imply sexual actions. In Carson McCullers 1946 novel, The Member of the Wedding, she utilizes these and many other objects to illustrate Frankie’s newfound sexual development.
Red playing cards were one of the main objects used by McCullers in her novel to aid the reader in understanding Frankie’s sexual development. The first encounter the reader has with the cards is at the very beginning of the novel when Frankie, Berenice, and John Henry are playing Bridge. Berenice had “... dealt slowly,
