The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah’s Book Club)
April 30, 2008
With the publication of her first novel, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Carson McCullers, all of twenty-three, became a literary sensation. With its profound sense of moral isolation and its compassionate glimpses into its characters’ inner lives, the novel is considered McCullers’ finest work, an enduring masterpiece first published by Houghton Mifflin in 1940. At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who becomes the confidant for various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. Each one yearns for escape from small town life. When Singer’s mute companion goes insane, Singer moves into the Kelly house, where Mick Kelly, the book’s heroine (and loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music. Wonderfully attuned to the spiritual isolation that underlies the human condition, and with a deft sense for racial tensions in the South, McCullers spins a haunting, unforgettable story that gives voice to the rejected, the forgotten, and the mistreated — and, through Mick Kelly, gives voice to the quiet, intensely personal search for beauty. Richard Wright praised Carson McCullers for her ability “to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness.” She writes “with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming,” said the NEW YORK TIMES. McCullers became an overnight literary sensation, but her novel has endured, just as timely and powerful today as when it was first published. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER is Carson McCullers at her most compassionate, endearing best.
Customer Review: Easy to put down, hard to pick up.
I have had the misfortune of picking 3 highly recommended ‘classic’ books in the past month that all melted together and subdued my voracious reading bug.
The first was Chocolat, followed by The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and capped off with Snow Falling on Cedars. It took me approximately 2 1/2 times longer to get through these books than other books and after completing all three, I can only slightly differentiate Chocolat away from the rest of them.
In terms of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - I can see why this is an Oprah Book Club book. Her Book Club started out good - nothing too complicated, nothing to fluffy - but then, in my opinion, her choices became too factual and less about enjoyment. I cannot get through a Toni Morrison book to save my life and even if I could, I wouldn’t understand it. I feel similarly about this book - I can get through it and I understand it, but I’m hanging by a very thin thread.
Some Oprah Book books really struck me - Icy Sparks, anything by Wally Lamb, for example - but if they don’t totally strike me, they seem to go the opposite.
I’ve read a few book since reading this one and can’t honestly remember what it’s about. I piqued my memory before writing this down though and I remember some disgust with the deaf mute in the hospital and that was the extent of my emotional connection to this book.
I don’t think it’s a must read and I don’t think it’s once of those books that, once you labor through, you want to reread. I would skip this one.
Customer Review: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: An Effective Teaching Tool and Genuinely Good Read
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is an ideal book for teachers to educate their students on the influential effect of characterization and an author’s ability to create tension and evoke sympathy in the reader. Carson McCullers’ compelling mastery of characterization and manipulation of the reader’s feelings create a world filled with loneliness and disappointment.
One instance where McCullers manipulates the reader’s feelings occurs when different characters in the book visit Singer in his room. Four different characters, Dr. Copeland, Biff, Mick, and Jake discuss their problems with Singer in his room on a regular basis. The trouble is that they are not discussing, but merely telling Singer their problems. They use Singer as a sound board and he just nods serenely. They enjoy this time because they are allowed to speak their mind with no inhibitions and feel as though Singer genuinely agrees with them. In reality, they are deceiving themselves by projecting their imagination of how they want him to respond onto him. Unbeknownst to the reader, McCullers creates enough ambiguity in the reader’s knowledge of each character that he begins to pass judgment on the characters according to how he wants them to be. This example provides educators an opportunity to demonstrate the author’s ability to influence the reader’s emotions by portraying certain events in such a way that they conflict with the reader’s desires.
McCullers continues to use the reader’s wants to force them to feel the characters’ loneliness through John Singer’s lack of response to his visitors. The audience wants Singer to respond to the people. The characters are crying out for help and Singer continues to sit and never replies. McCullers refuses to give the reader that satisfaction or else the reader’s imagination could not fill in the holes of ambiguity. If Singer were to talk to the people and help them out with their problems, then the tension would relax and everything would work out in the end. The space and distance between the characters that interact on a daily basis create the loneliness both they and the reader feel. This helps students realize that authors intentionally illustrate characters and events in a very specific way in order to elicit certain emotions and expectations in the reader.
The reader’s expectations are further heightened as McCuller provides situations in which the conflict could finally be resolved. One night, Singer meets three other mutes and begins to converse with him. This event provokes a sense of excitement in the reader because Singer may finally find someone in which he can relate. His loneliness may be resolved at last. But in the end something is amiss and Singer wants nothing to do with them. And so, the reader gets pulled in and then crushed. Likewise, both Jake Blout and Dr. Copeland live in this small town, love Communism and Marxism, and spend their lives fighting for it. They eventually run into each other and only need to share their thoughts to each other, but they miss the opportunity. They skip over the only person that could relate to their situation and continue to live their lives in sorrow and alone. Because all these experiences promote a sense of hopelessness and loss, students can easily see that authors carefully place situations throughout a book that tie back to a specific objective and feeling.
In addition to unresolved expectations, McCullers successfully uses characterization to elicit sympathy in the reader. For instance, the reader especially bonds with Mick because she is the closest to Singer and like a child. She is the musically talented struggling girl that the readers yearns to see succeed. The beautiful diction by which Mick speaks and the faith felt in her causes the reader to love her. Yet she is tainted. She smokes against the reader’s will. She has one shot at a musical scholarship but loses it. There is one shot in the book for a true loving relationship to occur between Mick and Harry and it ends with a fumbling, inarticulate sexual intercourse. The great potential in Mick fails and the reader is left feeling lost and hopeless. Having the opportunity to seriously relate to characters lets the reader emotionally invest in the novel and form a deeper connection with the book, thus making it a better read and profound teaching tool.
Another instance of McCullers’ effective use of characterization is seen in Dr. Copeland. Dr. Copeland is the epitome of a crushing figure. He is described as a wrinkled old black man that only wants to help save his people. He has this passion for Marxism and names his children after communist philosophers. Yet his children do not understand him and he cannot seem to get through to anyone he reaches out to. The reader experiences his extreme frustration as he witnesses his family being broken apart and is powerless to stop it. He is constantly attending to the sick while coughing and spitting into a handkerchief. The appeal to the reader’s emotions leaves him feeling helpless as he watches Dr. Copeland get sicker and sicker and become a martyr for his people. As teachers and students read The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, they will notice they have developed a new sense of sympathy toward the characters and will regard the book on a more personal level.
Additionally, this novel exudes tension and loss that the reader can feel through McCullers’ character Bubber. Bubber, later known as George, symbolizes the reader’s relationship and experience with the novel. In the beginning, Bubber is an ignorant and innocent toddler that is merely starting his life in the community. Although he has been introduced to the harsh society, he later learns the true loneliness and cruelty of the world. When Bubber accidentally shoots Baby in the head, his whole world changes. He is loses his innocence and is no longer called Bubber, but his real name George. He has responsibilities and his family treats him as an adult. Comparatively, the reader begins the novel assuming it will be another happy ending story. Experiencing the events through the eyes of various characters exposes the reader to a realistic and depressing life. Therefore, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is unarguably an optimal instrument teachers can draw on to demonstrate the power characterization has on influencing the audience’s feelings.
McCullers’ extraordinary use of characterization and control of the reader’s expectations allow her to create a society full of conflict and tension. She uses each character and his or her experiences to evoke a specific emotion in the reader. These skills collaborate together to form an effective novel that is a perfect tool for teachers to instruct their students in the great power of characterization while students can simultaneously enjoy an enthralling and thought-provoking book. It is greatly recommended for its usefulness in educating students in the power of both one author and one book’s ability to instill a new sense of the need for acceptance, love, maturity, and understanding.
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