Renowned literary scholar Harold Bloom, along with William Golding, compiled Carson McCullers (Modern Critical Views) in 1986. This collection offers a diverse range of critical perspectives for students studying McCullers’s body of work. The authors not only analyze her entire career but also provide insights into her individual works.

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Harper Lee narrates the story of eight-year-old Scout and her older brother Jem as they grow up in the South during the Great Depression. Their father, a lawyer, takes a stand against popular opinion by defending an African-American man accused of raping a poor white woman.

McCullers’s highly praised novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) centers on John Singer, a deaf-mute residing in a southern mill town during the 1930s. The book delves into themes of isolation, ethics, and prejudice by portraying the lives of five characters.

Tennessee Williams’s play The Glass Menagerie (1944) depicts a southern family grappling with their personal issues amidst the challenges of contemporary life.