The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
“The Heart is a lonely hunter with only one desire! To find some lasting comfort in the arms of anothers fire...driven by a desperate hunger to the arms of a neon light, the heart is a lonely hunter when there's no sign of love in sight!” ― Carson McCullers
This is a coming-of-age novel, but it is atypical given that it's told from the perspective of four very divergent characters: a young girl, a drunken socialist, a black doctor and a sympathetic deaf mute - each of them grotesque in their own individual way.
All of these individuals believe they understand their place in society to differing degrees, but as the story unfolds we find that they are all actually lacking something that would enable them to fit in. Each character in McCullers' concept of the grotesque has an exceptional quality that sets them apart from the usual, yet they are nevertheless driven to seek acceptance.
The clearest example of one of the main characters still trying to figure out who they are is Mick, who, as a young adolescent, has not yet discovered who she truly is. She throws a party for her new classmates to fit in, explores sexuality with Harry Minowitz, and gives in to what a career in music can teach her about herself. Ironically, though, once she has discovered a self that she is comfortable with, she is prevented from continuing the music career due to Despite the irony, Singer does not identify with any of the other key characters but rather with the Greek, Antonapoulos. She and the other primary characters all go to Singer because they believe he is like them.
Each of the characters share similarities: they are yearning for something that will help them "grow" emotionally. The delightful young girl, Mick Kelly, shifts between being a playful tomboy and a proper young lady. Her "journey" is a heartfelt one: a poor girl who has an amazing amount of creative energy but doesn't know how to channel it in a fulfilling way. It's not until she has some kind of "awakening" that she realizes she is growing up and that her destiny is in her hands.
This was the first of McCuller's novels, and in my estimation one of the best first novels that I have ever read.
2 comments:
Hi James, We were assigned A Member of The Wedding by Carson McCullers in high school and I loved that book. I should reread it. To this day I remember the tragic death of Frankie's little brother that came on so sudden. I still remember him asking his sister Frankie earlier in the book to come outside and play with him because "those kids outside sound like their having a mighty fine time" And then a few chapters later he was gone. I never got around to reading The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter maybe I was afraid it would ruin the Member of the Wedding experience but I should give it a try.
Hi Kathy, McCullers is among my favorite Southern authors along with O'Connor, Welty, and Percy. I first encountered this book in its incarnation as a movie with Alan Arkin and Sondra Locke both nominated for Academy Awards. I'll never forget the complete silence in the theatre after the end of the film - we all were overcome with emotion. Subsequently I've read and reread this book along with A Member of the Wedding. As a first novel I would compare it favorably with Lawrence's Sons and Lovers and O'Connor's Wise Blood.
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