The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

by Carson McCullers

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Analysis

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The loneliness of love and the oppressiveness of time are developed in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter through the structure of a musical fugue. Singer’s love for Antonapoulos, announced at the beginning of the novel, plays in counterpoint in the lives of Mick, Jake, Biff, and Dr. Copeland. McCullers explains that because of the fugal form, each character takes on a new richness when contrasted and woven in with the other characters; thus, according to her outline, Singer’s love for Antonapoulos “threads through the whole book from the first page until the very end.”

When Mick Kelly enters Brannon’s cafe, Brannon finds that he can no longer keep his mind on reading the newspaper because a strange, new feeling of tenderness comes to him. Mick, however, does not share his interest; instead she turns to music, which becomes linked in her mind with Singer and with love. McCullers constructs a paradigm of Mick’s character through references to music. At first the child’s love is instinctive, and she responds to music with wonder and awe. “Nothing is as good as music,” she says, and the songs of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are “the softest and saddest thing she had ever imagined about.” As Mick develops, music becomes associated with sex and traces her evolution into adulthood. Innocence is symbolized by her misspelling the composer’s name as MOTSART, and as Mick’s growing sexuality is revealed, she scribbles “a very bad word—PUSSY” on the wall of an unfinished house. For McCullers, love should be essentially Platonic, and agape, or brotherly love, is the ideal. Sexual love leaves the lover feeling incomplete, and Mick thinks of it as bad and dirty.

The final fugal voices belong to Jake Blount and Dr. Copeland, who believe that Singer understands and shares their dreams. Blount thinks that Singer cares about social revolution. Copeland takes Singer on house calls because he will help make things better for the black race. Only Biff Brannon questions why everyone thinks “the mute was exactly as they wanted him to be—when most likely it was all a very queer mistake.” This error is brought out in the irony of Singer’s name, which links the themes of music and love. A deaf-mute cannot sing or hear, and his name is as false as are the impressions about him.

Part 2, the developmental section of McCullers’ literary fugue, explores in counterpoint the one-sided relationship of lover and beloved established by Singer and Antonapoulos. The focus of the section is on Mick as Singer becomes increasingly the idol of her dreams. At first she seeks acceptance by her schoolmates and gives a grown-up dance in an attempt to belong to the group. The party, however, is a failure, and in her despair Mick turns to music to ease the emptiness that she feels inside. She sits outside a nearby house at night and listens to the music on the radio. Beethoven’s Third Symphony, The Eroica, typifies Mick’s spiritual condition, her passion and unfulfilled yearning to be in harmony with the grandeur and beauty of the song. The music is of strategic importance, as the symphony’s initial whiplash of chords announces Mick’s response: “The music came again, harder and loud,” and it “left only this bad hurt in her.” Mick’s attempt to grasp the ecstasy of the music fails, as does her dream of living alone with Singer “in a little foreign house where in winter it would snow.”

The music of The Eroica is a metaphorical rendition of Mick’s situation, as well as that of the other characters in The Heart Is a...

(This entire section contains 724 words.)

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Lonely Hunter. The fleeting feelings of radiance and peace when the lover shares the company of a beloved are part of each character’s response to being in love. Yet McCullers’ characters become disappointed by the heroes who are unable to respond to the needs and dreams locked in each lover’s heart. Part 3 recapitulates the theme of love and shows each character’s reaction to Singer’s death. Blount leaves town, and Dr. Copeland goes back to his wife’s farm and dies of tuberculosis. Mick works at Woolworth’s, and the music within her heart is silent. The heart remains a lonely hunter in its unrequited quest for love.

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