The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers was only twenty-three years' old when she wrote and published her book The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in 1940. Due to its immediate critical acclaim, it began to be read all over the United States and elsewhere. Honest, deeply psychological and compassionate in its portrayal of marginalised characters - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is not only still widely read today but is also considered to be Carson McCullers' magnum opus. Set in the south during the Great Depression, the novel reflects on socio-economic struggles whilst also commenting on the extreme humanity of the characters directly impacted by it. Loneliness and depression pervade the text, but most of all we have a deep, moving sense of love and friendship only equalled by the characters in a Steinbeck novel.

Plot

John is a tall, skinny man and Spiros is an obese Greek man - both are deaf-mutes. They are almost always together and live in a two-room apartment together. Spiros works at a fruit store and John works at a jewelry store. After work, John tries to engage in conversation through sign language with Spiros preferring to eat and sleep. Even though they enjoy each other's company, they have no other friends and live in a poor, cotton mill town in the Deep South.

Spiros becomes ill at thirty-two years' old and his behaviour changes wildly, this includes theft, public urination, and disruptive actions. John depletes his savings to cover his friend's legal troubles. Spiros is committed to an asylum and even though John is devastated, he must continue on to avoid falling into complete desolation. He eventually moves to a boarding house, spending his evenings wandering the town alone.

Biff Brannon, the owner of the New York Café, is dealing with his wife Alice's complaints about a drunk named Jake Blount, who has been causing trouble for the past two weeks. Jake interacts with John at the café and eventually, after establishing connections John offers to take him back home. But this is not without Jake becoming violent, head-butting a wall and other things. Biff watches on as John turns Jake out of the café.

Mick wakes up to find John unavailable and climbs upon a roof to indulge in her daydreams of ambition and love for Mozart. Inside the unfinished house, Mick writes names and words on the walls, expressing her thoughts and frustrations. After heading home, she interacts briefly with her sisters and then goes to her brother Bill's room, feeling disheartened by her failed attempt to make a violin. Eventually, at dinner, she finally gets a glimpse of John and resolves that she must eventually visit him.

Jake wakes up in John's room and John states that Jake needs to find a job. Though they find it difficult to communicate, Jake agrees and goes to look for a job. After securing the job, he stops to talk with some mill workers, expressing his fervent beliefs about social justice and strikes, but they laugh at him. Jake returns to John and rambles on about Marx until they fall asleep.

By the end of Part One, we get agony regarding the treatment of the Black community through a doctor and the servant, Portia. However, we also return to John who goes to visit his friend, Spiros, in the asylum. Both are insanely lonely though John himself is surrounded by people and well-wishers. It highlights how special their friendship really is.

As we begin Part Two, we see Mick again and she is starting high school, deciding to have a party to celebrate. However, within this, we see her deep disconnection from her peers. The party gets chaotic, and Mick finds solace in listening to Beethoven, highlighting her deep connection to music. Biff experiences the sudden loss of his wife, Alice, leading him to reflect deeply on her memory and his own life. He sews mourning bands on his suits and visits John.

After Alice's funeral, Biff reopens the café, where locals like Jake and Mick frequent. Biff observes Mick's boyish appearance and her unusual interactions with John. It makes him reflect on the whole nature of human interaction, some of which he is guilty about, some of which he knows he has missed. Underlying all of this though is the untimely death of Alice, which seems to have caught him by surprise and he knows now, he could never have such interactions with Alice ever again.

Meanwhile, the doctor deals with the harsh realities of his work whilst also treating himself for TB. After discovering his son Willie has been arrested and later convicted of attempted manslaughter, he grapples with his feelings of guilt and disappointment. His estrangement from his family deepens when he attends a reunion where he feels disconnected from their religious beliefs and leaves in frustration.

Jake confides in John his deep unease at having failed to incite social change, and from this he knows he requires to still search for his true purpose. Mick Kelly navigates her burgeoning love for music and the responsibilities of caring for her younger brother Bubber. Bubber shot a neighbour and went on a downward emotional spiral. Mick attempts to scare him into responsibility, but in her heart she is still that disconnected soul with a great love for music.

At a Christmas Party held by the doctor, the doctor himself makes a speech despite being sick with fever. His speech is about Marx and social justice and how the time to act is now. John on the other hand is still deeply upset about losing Spiros to the asylum and relies on his encounters with the other characters even though they cannot replace him. He eventually goes to visit Spiros who is sick with disease and John leaves wishing that they could have more time to stay together. He is deeply upset.

Biff is contemplating the mystery of John - questioning why people misinterpret him so often. He reminisces about his late wife, Alice, and spends time refurbishing their bedroom. Mick Kelly, facing financial strain due to the medical bills from the person Bubber shot, has stopped her piano lessons but starts composing her own songs in a notebook. The doctor receives terrible news that Willie has been so badly mistreated in prison that his feet were amputated. During a strike, the doctor himself is beaten and detained due to racial prejudice.

Jake works at a fair and is constantly frustrated, but he hears about Willie's mistreatment. However when he visits the doctor, they get into an argument about their differing approaches to social justice. They clash over their strategies for addressing systemic issues—Jake's focus on educating about capitalism's injustices versus the doctor's emphasis on racial equality and organising a march on Washington. The disagreement turns heated, and Jake, overwhelmed, exits in tears, feeling misunderstood and isolated in his activism.

Mick is deeper in financial trouble and decides to keep busy at home whilst helping around as much as she can instead of pursuing her ambitions. Meanwhile, John goes to the hospital to visit Spiros only to find out that he has died. John, distraught and in despair, returns home and shoots himself in an act of suicide.

The doctor goes to live on a farm and, though defeated, he thinks about the death of John and how much he is frustrated by not taking his activism further. Jake gets into a fight at the fair and goes home to pack his things. He unsuccessfully tries to find the doctor and then departs on a train to somewhere else. Mick is in grief over John's death and promises to set herself aside money so that she may pursue something - if not a dream. Biff has a brief epiphany about the human condition whilst staring into a mirror and thinking about John's suicide.

All are getting ready for the next day, no matter how difficult.

Into the Book

The most important theme in this book I believe, is the isolation in the hunt for understanding. John is isolated because he is a deaf-mute and he's trying to find his way without his friend, Mick is isolated for her intelligence and being a woman this is a strange ambition for the time, the doctor is isolated because of how ambitious he is for revolution and his family do not appreciate him rocking the boat, Biff is completely alone once his wife dies and finally, Jake is a new guy in town and so his Marxist values aren't taken seriously by the townsfolk. All of these people except for Biff confide in John to help them with their isolation and alienation from modern life. Biff, we can see, is a mirror of John who loses his right hand person and is profoundly lost without them.

"We must sacrifice so that they may earn the dignity of study and wisdom. For the time will come. The time will come when the riches in us will not be held in scorn and contempt. The time will come when we will be allowed to serve. When we will labor and our labor will not be wasted. And our mission is to await this time with strength and faith"

- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

John Singer is one of the biggest symbols throughout the book, embodying the hopes and ambitions of some of the characters. For example: he knows all about Mick's hopes and dreams and, he seems to have some links to how Biff understands becoming enlightened about humanity. John is truly a blank slate and so, the others project themselves on to him causing him to also achieve this semi-godlike status amongst them. In a Christian fashion, when John dies the others are deeply saddened but also achieve some small step towards their goal, even if it is only a very small step.

"You remember the four people I told you about when I was there... They are all very busy people. In fact they are so busy that it will be hard for you to picture them. I do not mean that they work at their jobs all day and night but that they have much business in their minds always that does not let them rest...the New York Café owner is different."

- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

There is a sense of heroism that pervades the novel in the forms of both John and Mick. Mick is selfless in the fact that she is willing to put the wellbeing of other over the pursuits of her own ambitions. For example: when Bubber shoots the neighbour and goes into the downward spiral, Mick stays to look after him instead of pursuing her musical interests. She is not really bitter about it even though she seems to mourn her choices sometimes. There is also John who is constantly trying to help those around him even if it is only providing a space in which they can express their worries and frustrations without judgement. It is truly one of the great features of the book.

"His heart turned and he leaned his back against the counter for support. For in a swift radiance of illumination he saw a glimpse of human struggle and of valour. Of the endless fluid passage of humanity through endless time. And of those who labor and of those who—one word—love. His soul expanded. But for a moment only. For in him he felt a warning, a shaft of terror... he was suspended between radiance and darkness. Between bitter irony and faith"

- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Why It's a Masterpiece

The author offers an intricate portrayal of human emotions and psychological complexities, creating rich, multi-dimensional characters with incredible, yet more than often mundane, stories of ambition and loss. Though it was her first novel, it is arguably still her most read to this day. A compassionate look at deaf-mutes and people with huge amounts of loss locked in their hearts, this book appear as number seventeen on the 100 Best English Language Novels of the 20th Century by TIME Magazine.

In my humble opinion, I think that this book symbolises the beginning of something incredibly special and its not just Carson McCullers' amazing writing career - it is quite possibly one of the first novels that really deals deeply with the struggles of deaf-mutes whilst also incorporating all the threats of the time proeceeding the novel's publication. It is a wonderful achievement of literature.

Conclusion

I hope that if you have not read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter that you do so as soon as possible. It is a brilliant 20th century novel with some themes that can even relate to us in our own day. Carson McCullers' work is all amazing but I think that this book really sets her apart from everyone else.

Next Week: The Frolic of the Beasts by Yukio Mishima