In The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

From January of 1933- May 1945 Adolf Hitler started the Holocaust in Germany, convincing a whole nation that one race was the cause of all their problems. He was able to get his soldiers to murder approximately six million people simply because they strongly believed this was their duty to help their country succeed. He was also able to do this because people who knew better stayed silent because they chose to ignore the problem rather than get involved. This is just one example throughout history of how strongly people can feel about their political views, as well as how some people can remain completely uninvolved. In The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, Jake represents the passion for the socialist movement during this time …show more content…
This is clearly evident in the story through diction and tone when Jake talks to the people in the restaurant about his passions. Jake expresses his passion when saying “The bastards who own these mills are millionaires. While the doffers and carders and all the people behind the machines who spin and weave the cloth can’t hardly make enough to keep their guts quiet. So when you walk around the streets and think about it and see hungry, worn-out people and rickety legged younguns, don’t it make you mad? Don’t it?” ( McCullers 66). The word choice that Jake uses to describe how he feels and what he sees is meant to settle deeply and uneasily with the reader. He accuses the the mill owners of being rich ‘bastards’ who do not work for their money without hesitation, while saying the people who actually work the mills barely make enough to survive. By using the phrase ‘when you walk around the streets and think about it’, Jake is also trying to show that the people he is with are not paying attention and are not passionate about the issue. If they were passionate, he would not feel the need to ask them to think about it. When one is passionate, they want to share their insight with others and this is exactly what Jake is doing. During his speech, “The vein in Jake’s forehead was swollen and scarlet. He scowled up into their puzzled, sallow faces” (McCullers 66). The diction the author uses is very …show more content…
In the story, the people at the restaurant listen to Jake’s speech and what he has to say and he finishes the speech with “ ‘Don’t it make you mad?’” (McCullers 66). While many people would invest themselves into the conversation and be concerned about their society, a man simply responds “ ‘How do you mean - mad?’” (McCullers 66). After Jake goes on a speech that lasts for eight sentences, all the man can respond with is five words. All he picks up on is the last thing Jake says, and only because he directly questions him. This shows the inevitable sad truth that some people simply are apathetic to the world around them. Later on this is demonstrated again when Jake decides to leave the restaurant. He continues trying to reach the people with his political views, pleading with them to listen to what he has to say. Instead of doing this, they continue ignoring him and “the sound of their laughter and catcalls still [follow] him” (McCullers 67) as he walks down the street. Once again Jake is talking in long sentences voicing his opinion, and the author uses a short sentence to show how the people respond to his