Carson McCullers and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers, the author of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was born on the 19th of February in 1917. Initially she had the dream of becoming a concert pianist. Due to her teacher and good friend, Mrs. Mary Tucker, moving away she eventually decided against it. This is what lead to her writing career (Tyrkus and Bronski). Her novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was her first to be published in 1940. The novel is set in the 1930’s and strings together the lives and experiences from many different characters. One of the main characters of the novel was Mick Kelly. Mick’s character was inspired by Carson McCullers herself. Her spiritual ties to music, being drawn to outcasts, and feelings
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Gender is a topic that is brought up several times throughout the novel. More specifically, one of the characters that she writes about represents an example of gender-bending. This character was Mick Kelly. An encounter between Mick Kelly and another character, Biff Brannon, speaks of Mick’s wardrobe. In the novel Biff says, “She was dressed in khaki shorts, a blue shirt, and tennis shoes – so that at first glance she was like a very young boy.” (McCullers 18). This statement that he makes introduces Mick as a character, and brings to light her way of dressing like a boy rather than a girl. As the novel continues, Mick dresses in such way, and only dresses feminine for a short time for her prom party and to get a job. Even so, Mick had nothing feminine enough from her wardrobe that she had to borrow a dress from one of her sisters. This specific topic and incidents with Mick Kelly can be related to William Faulkner’s character, Drusilla, from “An Odor of Verbena”. In this section of his writing, Drusilla also dresses in more of a masculine style (Jones). Although this way of dressing is frowned upon, both characters find that it is important to …show more content…
The novel begins with the different stories of her character’s lives, and ends with the one person who seemed to bring them all together in some aspect, John Singer, killing himself after the death of his best friend. Her writing was a compilation of gender and the roles that gender played, the racial issues that several of the colored characters endured, the friendships of John Singer and the impact he had on the people whom he had visited often with, and views about the South. Carson McCullers gave her readers a glimpse into what it was like to live in the South in this time period. She was able to capture all of these topics while also adding a little bit of herself into her novel. Although she passed away at the young age of 50 from a stroke, she left behind a great piece of work that can be enjoyed for a long
Gender is a topic that is brought up several times throughout the novel. More specifically, one of the characters that she writes about represents an example of gender-bending. This character was Mick Kelly. An encounter between Mick Kelly and another character, Biff Brannon, speaks of Mick’s wardrobe. In the novel Biff says, “She was dressed in khaki shorts, a blue shirt, and tennis shoes – so that at first glance she was like a very young boy.” (McCullers 18). This statement that he makes introduces Mick as a character, and brings to light her way of dressing like a boy rather than a girl. As the novel continues, Mick dresses in such way, and only dresses feminine for a short time for her prom party and to get a job. Even so, Mick had nothing feminine enough from her wardrobe that she had to borrow a dress from one of her sisters. This specific topic and incidents with Mick Kelly can be related to William Faulkner’s character, Drusilla, from “An Odor of Verbena”. In this section of his writing, Drusilla also dresses in more of a masculine style (Jones). Although this way of dressing is frowned upon, both characters find that it is important to …show more content…
The novel begins with the different stories of her character’s lives, and ends with the one person who seemed to bring them all together in some aspect, John Singer, killing himself after the death of his best friend. Her writing was a compilation of gender and the roles that gender played, the racial issues that several of the colored characters endured, the friendships of John Singer and the impact he had on the people whom he had visited often with, and views about the South. Carson McCullers gave her readers a glimpse into what it was like to live in the South in this time period. She was able to capture all of these topics while also adding a little bit of herself into her novel. Although she passed away at the young age of 50 from a stroke, she left behind a great piece of work that can be enjoyed for a long