The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, Book Review Example

The masterpiece novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is set in a very small southern town in Charlotte, North Carolina. The characters are considered rejects and the unheard or voiceless. Mick Kelley is the heroine of the novel. Each individual character has internal conflict which damns them to fight to attempt to drive away their conflict and loneliness they feel. The author brought out feelings of children experiencing grotesqueness and spiritual isolation who were excluded from society because of physical or mental handicaps. It is important to note the novel was set in the 1930’s and the townspeople were traditional and somewhat closed minded and shunned the so called abnormal or non-conformist to society as a whole and were not willing to work with them. The plot of the novel commences as John Singer, deaf and mute, having a live in friendship with Antonopoulos which eventually becomes strained due to the fact that Antonopoulos begins to steal and publicly expose himself after sharing a ten year friendship with John. This erratic behavior is what forces John to end the very long friendship and eventually have Antonopoulos committed to a mental institution. Biff Brannon is the owner of the New York Café and keeps a keen eye on his business. After Antonopoulos is sent to the hospital John becomes a regular customer at the café. One very important character is Jake Blount who constantly abuses his privileges at the café by daily extending his credit there. Biffs’ wife Alice makes it known she wants Biff to leave the café in fear for her marriage. She has to ensure Biff does not continue his behavior at the café any longer.

Meanwhile Mick Kelly spends the Sunday pulling her two younger siblings around in a cart thinking of ways to get to the top of a roof to sing. She chickens out for her fear of heights and becomes frustrated with her fears. Jake refuses Johns offer to stay with him after staying over only one night. Jake becomes aware only then that John is deaf and mute after staying over with John. John goes to visit Spiro in the mental hospital. After his return Dr. Copeland again leans on John when his son Willie goes to prison for assault with a deadly weapon. Portia is busy planning the annual Christmas Party. Dr. Copeland and she are wary because he has not received a letter from his son Willie in prison this week. She knows the $5 essay contest is coming soon and she must concentrate on that and get her mind off her worries about not receiving Willie’s letter this week. “This year’s theme is the topic of bettering the position of the Negro race in society, an issue at the core of the doctor’s life.” (Chapter 6, Part 2). Doctor Copeland awarded the essay price to Lancy Davis. (McCullers 2000, 192). Although Dr. Copeland did not find the essay favorable at all he though Lancy’s essay the only one worthy of the essay prize because he realizes that he not only wanted his own children to take the same pride Lancy took in the essay he also wanted Lancy to feel proud of winning an accomplishment. Though he did not agree with Lancy’s plan to form a revolt to abolish the white race, he understood the anger the black people felt, particularly Lancy because of the long and uncivil repression. This was an annual essay contest Dr. Copeland held along with a dinner at his home.

Portia and Dr. Copeland soon learn about six weeks later that Willie was involved in a prison fight and were put in an isolated room and hung upside down by their feet. Portia goes to drinking for days. This puts Dr. Copeland into shock as he has much trouble grasping exactly what Portia is trying to portray to him. Dr. Copeland decides to speak to the Superior justice judge to find out more of the story and find justice for his son. Copeland feels this injustice of Willie’s feet being cut off is symbolic of the injustice done to the black people for so many years.

Jake has much interest in Willie’s injustice. The doctor wants to arrange a march at the capitol. Portia knows Jake and the doctor are at two different educational levels and two different thought patterns and wonders if the doctor is thinking rationally knowing Jake is a drunkard.  Mick decides she needs company all the time and chooses John Singer to hang around with. The nights are very difficult for her. The author never reveals why Mick does not feel safe with her inner self. She takes a job and gives up her love for playing the piano in order to help out with the extra income for the family. She decides to work at Woolworth. John Singer dies by way of suicide and the doctor is recommended to go live with his grandfather. He does not feel his work is complete and is angry.

One very profound quote of the novel which I most remembered was one of Mick Kelley “But say a man does know. He sees the world as it is and he looks back thousands of years to see how it all comes about. He watches the slow agglutination of capital and power and he sees its pinnacle today. He sees America as a crazy house… He sees a whole damn army of unemployed and billions of dollars and thousands of miles of land wasted… He sees how when people suffer just so much they get mean and ugly and something dies in them. But the main thing he sees is that the whole system of the world is built on a lie. And although it’s as plain as the shining sun—the don’t-knows have lived with that lie so long they just can’t see it.” The world was going on around her and she heard nothing at all but music and symphony. After the silence went away she was left with hurt and pain like a torn rabbit.

This novel was written with a guided purpose in mind and very well-orchestrated. The question asked by the professor of the reason the recipient received the award though the doctor felt he may have not deserved it dealt with the content of the paper and yet the oppression of the essay but also drew from inner feelings the doctor felt how the blacks had been oppressed all these years through the injustice done to his son Willie whilst in prison. He was able to empathize with the young man through the injustices done to his son.

Works Cited

McCullers, Carson. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. New York: NY,  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004