Reflections in a Golden Eye was published one year after Carson McCullers’s brilliant and well-received first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940). The second work was often harshly criticized for dealing with morbid and depressing subjects, as well as for its grotesque characters. As evidence that McCullers was interested only in the darkest side of human nature, her detractors pointed to such incidents as in the novel as Alison Langdon’s cutting off her nipples with gardening shears and Weldon Penderton’s putting a purring kitten into a frozen mailbox.

Southern playwright Tennessee Williams, McCullers’s friend, came to her defense. In an introduction to a later edition of the work, he explained that the world itself is full of morbidity and grotesqueness and that McCullers’s novel encapsulates those qualities in a tiny space, thereby intensifying their effects.

Admirers of Reflections in a Golden Eye have also praised its economy. In 110 pages, McCullers paints thorough portraits of three characters: Captain Penderton, Private Williams, and Alison Langdon. Even characters who are less thoroughly drawn pique the reader’s interest. This is especially true of the Filipino houseboy, Anacleto, who adores and emulates his mistress, even straining with her during labor. His dedication to her is both admirable and perverse.

Reflections in a Golden Eye explores the problems inherent in denying one’s true nature and attempting too much to conform. Private Williams and Captain Penderton both try to deny their sexuality, resulting in one man’s killing the other. The novel also shows what happens when a person fails to live up to his or her obligations to another. Major Langdon cannot be a true husband to Alison or a true father to his child; as a result, his wife becomes increasingly ill. Captain Penderton’s inability to have a real relationship with his wife drives her to other men, again often causing pain to innocent people.

Setting the novel on an Army base intensifies the work’s effect. Where people are expected to conform, nonconformity seems even more grotesque. As McCullers says, on the post, most men are expected to do no more than “follow the heels ahead of [them].” The people in this novel, however, are all out of step.

Reflections in a Golden Eye further illuminates one of McCullers’s strongest themes: the effect of love on the lover. Major Langdon and Leonora Penderton have an affair; their love is requited, and they are the least interesting of the main characters. Langdon becomes sympathetic only after the death of his wife, when he wishes even that Anacleto were there so that he would have some daily reminder of Alison.

Captain Penderton, Alison, and Williams all love someone who cannot or will not love them in return. Penderton loves Williams; Williams loves Penderton’s wife; and Mrs. Langdon loves her dead child. All are ultimately destroyed by their love. A related theme, also common with McCullers, is isolation. Almost everyone in the novel is in some way alone. Although the characters try to make connections, these attempts often result in further separation.

Respect for Reflections in a Golden Eye has increased with time. The short novel is now considered one of McCullers’s masterpieces, although its grotesque characters, violent events, and unconventional sexuality continue to disturb readers.