Set in a small town in Georgia in the late 1930s, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter focuses on deaf-mute John Singer who befriends four alienated characters who consider him a kindred spirit and believe that only Singer can understand their plight: an adolescent girl, Mick Kelly who is forced by poverty and strict gender roles to give up her dream of a career in music; a political radical Jake Blount; a disillusioned African-American doctor and civil rights activist, Benedict
Copeland; and a lonely and sexually ambiguous restaurant owner, Biff Brannon, who has increasingly withdrawn from human contact since the death of his wife. Each of these frustrated and isolated characters is drawn to Singer and believes that he cares about them and empathizes …show more content…
Yet in reality Singer listens only to be polite and is a bit confused by their attention and expectations. In fact, he cares only for his mute friend Antonopoulos an enigmatic man who has been placed in a mental institution. When Antonopoulos dies, a bereaved Singer commits suicide. Kelly, Blount, Copeland, and Brannon are left to make sense of his death and continue their frustrated search for love and acceptance.
The inability to communicate and connect with others is regarded as a dominant theme in
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; as Copeland, Brannon, Kelly, and Blount confide their secret to the deaf-mute Singer, they engage in essentially a one sided friendship with a man who is bewildered by their attention. Singer’s only confidante is the mute and simple minded
Antonopoulos whose death leaves Singer completely alone and suicidal. Emotional intimacy is often not reciprocated in the novel, and the futility of interpersonal communication is a recurring theme in all of McCullers’ work. Every major character in the novel is afflicted with a sense of spiritual isolation and loneliness. Frustrated ambition is another main theme in The Heart is
Copeland; and a lonely and sexually ambiguous restaurant owner, Biff Brannon, who has increasingly withdrawn from human contact since the death of his wife. Each of these frustrated and isolated characters is drawn to Singer and believes that he cares about them and empathizes …show more content…
Yet in reality Singer listens only to be polite and is a bit confused by their attention and expectations. In fact, he cares only for his mute friend Antonopoulos an enigmatic man who has been placed in a mental institution. When Antonopoulos dies, a bereaved Singer commits suicide. Kelly, Blount, Copeland, and Brannon are left to make sense of his death and continue their frustrated search for love and acceptance.
The inability to communicate and connect with others is regarded as a dominant theme in
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; as Copeland, Brannon, Kelly, and Blount confide their secret to the deaf-mute Singer, they engage in essentially a one sided friendship with a man who is bewildered by their attention. Singer’s only confidante is the mute and simple minded
Antonopoulos whose death leaves Singer completely alone and suicidal. Emotional intimacy is often not reciprocated in the novel, and the futility of interpersonal communication is a recurring theme in all of McCullers’ work. Every major character in the novel is afflicted with a sense of spiritual isolation and loneliness. Frustrated ambition is another main theme in The Heart is