The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is a novel that takes place in a small southern town during the times of pre-World War II, the late 1930's. McCuller's main characters are misfits, lonely and rejected. They are all looking for a place in the world. The most tragic of the characters is a deaf-mute named John Singer. Singer's life basically revolves around his one and only friend Spiros Antonapoulos, who is also a deaf-mute. Singer "tells" Antonapoulos everything he is thinking or feeling and it seems as though Antonapoulos is interested in everything but what Singer has to say. Antonapoulos only communicates with Singer when he is hungry or sleepy. Singer just assumes he is listening and understanding everything he says. They lived this way for ten years. Then one day Antonapoulos became sick and eventually turned crazy and is forced to go to an insane asylum. Singer is very lonely and depressed without him. Singer starts to frequent a cafe where the other pathetic characters also hang out. They are attracted to Singer, obsessed even, with telling him their problems. They turn to him when the need to be understood but no one understands Singer. Singer was obsessed with a friendship of questionable devotion on Antonapoulos' part. Singer waited day and night for Antonapoulos and later found out that Antonapoulos died. It was a shock for Singer. He eventually committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest. I guess he couldn’t live anymore without the one person he cared so deeply for and lived for. Doctor Benedict Mady Copeland is another character lost in this book. He is a black doctor whose desire is to motivate people to demand their rightful place in American Society. He has ideas that no one seems to understand regardless of how hard he tries to explain him or her. Jake Blount is another pathetic character. He shows up at this cafe drunk and constantly acting foolish. He searches for someone to listen to hi...
