Vehicles of Transcendence from the Mundane in the Ballad of the Sad Café .
Living in a backwater town myself I can see the importance of anything to break the ordinary. Here in(insert town) the days are almost the same: wake up, go to school, get home and do home work. When something happens, say a car-wreak, everyone talks about it. Things are the same in the story, when a hunchback shows up to rattle the town into gossip, and flights of fancy. Sadly we see that the town goes back to the same routine when the café comes to a cashing end, yet thrives in it as they rise above the mundane, even if it is for a shot while.
The first vehicle of transcendence would have to be the hunchback, cousin Lymon. He came to the Town in the middle of the night and claimed to be kin to the only women who could be also a vehicle of transcendence had the town not become accustomed to her presence. When he came to town the town was thrown into an uproar. Not only was he a hunchback, strange enough by itself, but he was also the cousin of Miss Amelia. When the café opened, Lymon was a troublemaker, trying to start fights between people, spreading gossip, and the like. Take this quote for example "There was a stir in the café and Miss Amelia looked around quickly. Cousin Lymon had come in- (pg. 39). The people of the town had come to expect Lymon to produce some sort of commotion. Though they knew what he said could be noting but boasting and lies they would listen, perhaps for something to draw them away from their senseless existents.
A café is nothing extraordinary, but when one lives in a town where there is only one then it is a place of freedom from the dreary monotony of a normal day. This café in particular was a way for the people to congregate and gossip. They would come to drink, which is another vehicle of transcendence. This café was a place where everyone came with fellowship and a "grace of behavior- was they could be friends, even if it was for the day.