The Miss Firecracker Contest (Criticism)

Criticism

Lois Kerschen

Kerschen is a freelance writer and adjunct college English instructor. In this essay, Kerschen shows how Henley uses each character and bizarre anecdotes to create both the comedy and the message in this play.

A constant litany of the bizarre runs through Henley's dialogue. Her plays are sometimes called tragi-comedies, or black comedies, because the humor is achieved through eccentric characters who have experienced strange incidents in their lives. These incidents, often involving violence and death, are sprinkled throughout the play for their comedic effect and for what they reveal about the characters. Some critics find this technique to be too much, but others appreciate the creativity and enjoy the anecdotes that range from the merely unusual to the outright ludicrous. Nothing is anywhere near normal for Henley's characters: Carnelle has dyed her hair bright red, Delmount can wiggle his ears, Popeye has bulging eyes, Mac Sam is riddled with diseases, and perfect Elain is emotionally frigid and completely self-centered. They can't even find plain ice to put on Delmount's wound. Instead they use a purple snow cone — they were out of cherry, Popeye explains, as if that makes perfect sense.

The element of death is introduced early when Carnelle gets acquainted with Popeye and tells her matter-of-factly that "people've been dying practically all my life. I guess I should be used to it by now." Carnelle's mother died when she was barely a year old. After Carnelle came to live with the Williams family, her Uncle George fell "to his death trying to pull this bird's nest out from the chimney." Then her father "drops dead in the summer's heat while running out to the Tropical Ice Cream truck." Popeye commiserates by telling how her own brother died when he was bitten by a water moccasin.

Aunt Ronelle is an influential character in the play, even though she is also dead. Robert Andreach, in a book about creating the self in contemporary drama, explains that Aunt Ronelle reared Carnelle to feel "inferior to her two cousins. To compensate, [Carnelle] concentrated on the one area where she felt that she could excel: with the males in the town." Aunt Ronelle's importance to the characters is evident from the number of times she and her fatal illness are mentioned. Carnelle tells Popeye about Aunt Ronelle in the opening scene when Popeye observes that the house is scary. It seems that her aunt had cancer of the pituitary gland, so surgeons replaced it with one from a monkey. The transplant lengthened her life only a month or so and had the "dreadful" side effect of causing her to grow long, black hairs all over her body just like an ape. This event is a source of conflict between Elain and Delmount, who have the typical sibling argument about who Mama loved best. Delmount thinks their mother had the embarrassing transplant just to be mean to them. But Elain ennobles the experience by repeating as an adage, in various forms throughout the play that "Mama was enlightened by her affliction."

According to critic Patrick Taggert, writing for the Austin American-Statesman, Delmount "seems to serve no other purpose than to permit Henley to have at least one character yelling and throwing things." While that is not exactly the case, it is true that Henley tends to use her male characters to catalyze the action of the female characters. In that light, Delmount has a problem with women. His confusion fits in perfectly with the women around him, who are also confused about themselves. Delmount claims that he has "a weakness for the classical, exotic beauty in a woman. I've been a fool for it. It's my romantic nature." Yet he has dreams about dismembered women. Linda Rohrer Paige in Feminist Writers speculates that "Delmount's imagination can envision women only from a limited, warped, or distorted perspective." Delmount is conflicted by the patriarchal image of women; this is the image he has been taught to use as a standard of beauty. This is at odds with his intuitive understanding that there is more to beauty than the cultural stereotype. Consequently, when a woman doesn't fit into his preconceived mold, in his dreams she becomes, as Paige surmises, "violently fragmented, disembodied, a portrait of beauty aborted."

Delmount's problem may be cured by Popeye. She isn't a classic beauty, or even a beauty, and it could hardly be said that her bulging eyes are "exotic." However, Popeye's love for Delmount may be just what he needs to get over his unrealistic expectations about women. It is poetic justice that he should fall in love with someone so outside his image of a beautiful woman. Perhaps by breaking away from the confines of his rigid expectations, he will break free from a number of his neuroses. One thing that Delmount and Popeye have in common is that they are both social outcasts who cannot imagine what is so important about the Miss Firecracker contest.

Popeye may be a calmer, more down-to-earth person than the others in the play, but her anecdotes reveal her off-kilter perspective. First we learn that she practiced sewing as a child by making clothes for bullfrogs because she didn't have any dolls. At one time she had a boyfriend who wanted her to meow and purr and liked to pet her as if she were a cat. Fortunately, Popeye recognized that behavior as weird. The reason for her name is a tragic tale in itself. Her brother threw some gravel into her eyes and then treated the stinging pain with ear drops instead of eye drops. From that point on her eyes bulged out, so people started calling her Popeye. She may have to use a magnifying glass to see up close, but she can now hear voices through her eyes, a unique talent indeed.

The character of Delmount further deals with the problem of beauty in his relationship with his sister. In large measure, Delmount gets his image of beauty from Elain. But he sees how messed-up beauty has made Elain and that adds to his confusion about beauty. Delmount loves his sister, but she left him in a mental institution when she had the power to get him out. He hates her for that, but as he says, he always forgives her for everything she does. "You'd think," he complains, "after you left me in that lunatic asylum, I'd know better than to trust you." Does he forgive her because she is his sister, or because beautiful people always get away with the harm they cause? Delmount, like the rest of society, may give latitude to some people just because they are beautiful. But he is left wondering how far anyone can trust beauty. Perhaps that is why Delmount falls for Popeye — her trustworthiness is ultimately more attractive than physical beauty.

The part of Mac Sam is a small one; he doesn't even appear until the second act. Nonetheless, he, too, is a male character who is useful to the plot. His most important purpose is to deliver the line to Carnelle, "I'll always remember you as the one who could take it on the chin." He also catalyzes the action by bringing the frog to Carnelle, thus letting her know that Popeye is somewhere nearby. Mac Sam provides a sympathetic male ear for Delmount, serves as Carnelle's biggest cheerleader, but he is also a link to her promiscuous past. Mac Sam also provides Elain with her one reckless night under the wisteria trees.

The story that Popeye tells about the midgets is a perfect example of Henley's style. It starts out as a cute story about two midgets, Sweet Pea and Willas, who marry and move into a darling little house made for their size. Then the story turns tragic: their child is born "regular size" like all their relatives and soon outgrows their "mite sized furniture." Consequently, they have to relinquish their child to Sweet Pea's mother to rear, and their hearts are broken. With this anecdote, the audience is moved from sweetly funny to sadly painful. Perhaps this anecdote is a mini-lesson in the midst of the running message that Henley wants the audience to understand: that being different, ugly, odd, or quirky can be difficult at best and excruciatingly demoralizing at worst. Henley may exaggerate the strangeness of her characters, but the point is that we all have our odd traits, yet we are still lovable, worthwhile people.

This technique is used in reverse in Carnelle's story. She was an unwanted child abandoned by her father with nothing but a pillow case full of dirty rags. She had ringworms all over her head, so Aunt Ronelle shaved off her hair to treat the sores. Carnelle went around wearing a yellow wool knit cap pulled down over her head. Delmount said she was an ugly sight and never did attain any self-esteem. He says she had to "sleep with every worthless soul in Brookhaven trying to prove she was attractive." With the beauty contest, Carnelle has once again chosen the wrong way to prove herself and winds up with just more humiliation. Instead of a yellow wool cap, she wears a faded red dress that doesn't fit and then she trips on the hoop skirt and falls flat on her face. Nonetheless, her natural resilience is already bringing her back to hopefulness within a few hours after the pageant. On one of the worst days of her life, Carnelle looks up at the fireworks and says, "Gosh, it's a nice night." She still has no idea what it all means, but the audience is left with the impression that she will keep trying to find out.

Henley's signature is not only her weird humor but also her optimism. The anecdotes may often be sickening and sad, but they make a point while also somehow being funny and upbeat. Some of her characters may fail temporarily in their attempts to solve their problems, but in The Miss Firecracker Contest, the band of strange underdogs has taken steps forward together that may get them there someday.

Source:

Lois Kerschen, Critical Essay on The Miss Firecracker Contest, in Drama for Students, Thomson Gale, 2005.

Catherine Dybiec Holm

Holm is a fiction and nonfiction writer and editor. In this essay, Holm looks at how Henley treats the theme of appearance in this play. The Miss Firecracker Contest is a play about appearances. Appearances, literal and figurative, drive the lives and the motivations of these characters. Appearances make or break these people. The effects of appearances in these characters' pasts continue to haunt them and direct their choices and thoughts. It is no doubt intentional that the title of the play, and the event that the title refers to, is a beauty and talent contest. Even more interesting is the fact that this could easily have been a play about one main character's struggle with her own appearance. But in this play Henley gives her reader lots to think about. Even the secondary characters in this play change as a result of the Miss Firecracker contest and its consequences.

Carnelle starts out as a terribly insecure character who is utterly convinced that the Miss Firecracker contest is the one and only way to erase her "hot tamale" past. Her insecurities are apparent in the first few pages of the play. Carnelle badly wants Popeye to know how special and important the upcoming Miss Firecracker contest is. When Popeye hesitates in her responses or does not respond the way Carnelle expects, Carnelle gets uncomfortable. Carnelle is interrupted in the middle of her routine by Popeye's arrival, and it almost seems as if Carnelle wants, or hopes, for glowing accolades from Popeye. Popeye, on the other hand, seems unconcerned with appearances or affectations; her answers and her dialog throughout the play are usually direct and to the point.

Carnelle: Wheew! Oh, and please excuse the way I look, but I've been practicing my routine. It's coming right along.

Popeye: Good.

Carnelle (after an awkward moment): Well, I guess what I should do is show you some sketches.

Carnelle seems to overreact with exaggerated disappointment when Popeye admits that she has never heard of the contest. However, Carnelle is almost ridiculously relieved when Popeye admits that she has only been in town for a few weeks and probably would not have known about the contest.

Carnelle is so insecure that she cannot bear the thought that her world and her efforts might actually be small and inconsequential. Based on her hopes for her looks, Carnelle hopes to put her past behind her, win the contest, and leave the town and her old life behind in a "blaze of glory." The power of firecrackers and the power that Carnelle might achieve if she is indeed able to leave in a "blaze of glory" is alluded to in several different ways. The color red indicates fire, or a blaze. Carnelle is referred to as "Carnation." Carnelle wears a red dress of Elain's during part of the contest. Carnelle spits and hisses like a firecracker when she is heckled cruelly by the crowd. Carnelle does leave "in a blaze," though it is not the blaze she originally imagined.

Carnelle is also not confident about her looks and seems to take comfort in talking about how other people think she could have been a model. She is so lost in her own reverie that she is startled when Popeye tries to get her to relax.

Carnelle: They say, "You should be up in Memphis working as a model. You really should."

Popeye: (Trying to get Carnelle to relax her tightly tucked in stomach) You can just relax.

Carnelle: What? Oh, I'm fine. Just fine.

When Popeye tells of sewing clothing for bullfrogs, Carnelle tries to make a joke of it, but her insecurity about her appearance leaks through again. Popeye, who is unfettered by any worries about her own appearance, completely misses the fine line that Carnelle walks between attempted humor and sad insecurity.

Carnelle: Well, I certainly hope you don't think of me as any bullfrog.

Popeye: Huh?

Carnelle: I mean, think I'm ugly like one of those dumb bullfrogs of yours.

Popeye: Oh, I don't.

Carnelle: Well, of course you don't. I was just joking.

Popeye: Oh.

Carnelle (suddenly very sad and uncomfortable): Are you about done?

Brought face to face with her insecurities about her appearance and her life, Carnelle throws in a spontaneous kick, knowing it is one thing she can do better than others can do. Throughout the play, Carnelle continually compares herself to the other contestants. Missy is ugly but can play the piano. Another girl is pretty but has yellow teeth. The reader gets the sense that Carnelle is hanging onto what little esteem she can carve out for herself. Carnelle achieves her esteem at the end of the play through the catharsis of her own anger and the realization that "I was trying so hard t'belong all my life."

It is interesting that the two least outwardly attractive characters in this play seem completely unconcerned about their appearances. Popeye wears thick-rimmed glasses and eccentric and non-stylish clothes but seems to move through the world innocently and removed from society's judgement about appearances. Mac Sam unselfconsciously coughs up clots of blood in all kinds of company and jokes about taking bets on which of his body organs will disintegrate first. Both of these characters have a compelling inner quality, however, that Carnelle and Elaine and Delmount do not realize within themselves until the end of the play.

Popeye is described as a "small glowing person." There is a compelling quality to Popeye that makes the reader take notice of her, even though she is plainer than Carnelle and Carnelle's extended family. Popeye hears voices in her eyes, and she is aware enough to be scared by the feeling inside Carnelle's house, even though Popeye knows nothing of the tumultuous history in that home. Popeye looks at a picture of Delmount and knows instantly that she is in love. Popeye seems to be guided by an inner clarity that the better looking characters in the play lack.

Mac Sam, for his stooped appearance, constant cough, and emaciation, still has eyes that are "magnetic and bloodshot at the same time." Mac Sam is "extraordinarily sensual," which makes him interesting in this play. He manages to be attractive in spite of his looks.

Delmount is so obsessed with appearance that he will not make advances toward any woman who does not possess "at least one classically beautiful characteristic." He alternately dreams of beautiful women and ugly women and, in a moment of confusion, seduces the town's ugly twins, Tessy and Missy. Delmount is also obsessed with repressing his own insanity, symbolically represented by his attempts to straighten his wild and curly hair. Elain calls him on his own internal struggle, when both Delmount and Elain are close to making important realizations about themselves.

Elain: So why do you straighten your wild hair? Why do you have horrible, sickening dreams about pieces of women's bodies? Some all beautiful, some all mutilated and bloody. I hate those dreams. They scare me.

In the end, Delmount dreams a magnificent dream of Popeye, a woman who he would have formerly not given a second look. Delmount falls in love with Popeye, somehow managing to bypass his former obsession with perfection in appearance. Popeye, with her own unerring inner voice, seems as if she knew that eventually her love for Delmount would be returned.

Elain's dialog takes a leap into a more honest realm as she finally leaves the superficial level that she had inhabited for so long and makes plans for a tryst with Mac Sam. "I'm gonna be a reckless girl at least once in my dreary, dreary life," she says. Elain has taken her own journey from her original role as a beauty queen. In the beginning of the play, Elain feels burdened by her pretty face and her own good looks. Even so, she is thrilled to be chosen to speak about beauty at the contest. After the fiasco at the Miss Firecracker contest, Elain ruefully admits that Carnelle probably will not have much reason to admire her anymore.

Mac Sam is less concerned with appearance than Delmount, Elain, and Carnelle start out. All Mac Sam likes is a woman who can "take it right slap on the chin." This foreshadows Carnelle's experience in the Miss Firecracker contest, when she is taunted, heckled, and pelted with peanuts. She reacts by fighting back and spitting like a firecracker, giving a double meaning to the title, and an allusion to a new strength that Carnelle has found inside herself.

Carnelle: I'd never been so mad as I was. And I spit out at everyone. I just spit at them. Oh! That's so awful it's almost funny!

Later, Mac Sam refers to her with real affection and alludes to his original mention of what he prefers in a woman, over appearances. He says to Carnelle, who has just departed, "Goodbye, Baby. I'll always remember you as the one who could take it on the chin."

The dichotomy that runs throughout this play is a theme of inner versus outer beauty. Surprisingly, Elain sums this up in reference to her own deceased mother, recalling that "Mama was at her most noblest when she was least attractive." The reader never meets this character but can easily picture the abusive mother who, for some reason, turned saint-like after an operation that left her with freakish side effects. Perhaps Henley is trying to say that unmarred by outer beauty, a character's inner beauty may more easily shine through to the surface. The Miss Firecracker Contest uses the themes of outer and inner appearances to guide these characters' journeys toward a realization of true beauty.

Source:

Catherine Dybiec Holm, Critical Essay on The Miss Firecracker Contest, in Drama for Students, Thomson Gale, 2005.

What do I read next?

• Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias (1988) is another story of strong Southern women who support and encourage each other during times of challenge. Harling's novel was made into a block-buster movie in 1989, starring Sally Fields, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, and Julia Roberts.
• Alan Ball wrote Five Women Wearing the Same Dress (1998), a comedy about five very distinct women who feel the same about an upcoming wedding.
• Beth Henley, Vol. 1: Collected Plays 1980 – 1989 (2000) and Beth Henley, Vol. 2: Collected Plays 1990 – 1999 (2000) in the Contemporary Playwrights series form a two-volume set of all of her works to date, each prefaced by anecdotes from some of her collaborators.
• Three Famous Short Novels (1958), by William Faulkner, contains The Bear, Old Man, and Spotted Horses, and is a good sampling of the diversity of this Southern writer.
• The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (1982) illustrates the complexity of stories and characters that made Welty an icon of Southern literature.
• Tennessee Williams's classic play The Glass Menagerie (1944) has since become required reading in most American schools and has been produced on stage and published countless times.
• Southern writer Flannery O'Connor's stories were collected in The Complete Stories. This book contains thirty-one short stories of penetrating dark humor, which Flannery wrote before her death in 1964 at the age of thirty-nine.