McCullers's sense of the macabre can make the meaning of the novel difficult to parse. However, there are some obvious places to start: Why does Amelia experience such an attraction to Lymon? What is the correct emotional response to Lymon's attraction to Marvin, and why do they steal her money before leaving? These issues are complex, but the epilogue helps to explain a common theme: The Twelve Mortal Men, a story of a chain gang of prisoners, is like the main novel's plot because everyone in the story is enslaved to something.
The story makes a point of the fact that Marvin's life of crime has been caused by the emotional damage of the rejection of his wife. The wife is enslaved to some sort of victim mentality, bound by custom to a loveless marriage (when in reality, she chose that by mistreating her husband). The dwarf is addicted to his fascination with ideal men, driven by a perverted self hatred that stems no doubt from his deformity. But, all three characters are deformed emotionally, and all three hurt someone in the process of obeying their desires.
The story seems to be a tragedy in form, where Amelia learns the full ramifications of rejection, having been prideful when she rejected her husband so completely, and now in the climax of that story, she must learn what it is that she has done—by being rejected herself. The fact that Amelia was so desperate for the love of the deformed man is an indication of her warped sense of desire.
