The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is a novel set in a small Southern town McCullers writes about characters who are lonely and rejected. theirlives intertwine in a search for friendship and understanding. Many of the characters havea need to be understood, however; none of them ever truly are. One of the characters in the novel, Jake Blount, searches for a sympathetic ear. Heappears in the New York Cafe drunk and rowdy talking to everyone and no one. He talksso much the “words came out of his throat like a cataract” (13). He constantly talks toeveryone hoping someone will take the time to really listen and understand. His wordscome out “as though a dam inside him has broken” (20). Ironically, the one he thinksunderstands him is a deaf-mute named John Singer. He tells Singer, “You’re the only onein this town who catches what I mean . . . because I know you understand the things Iwant to mean” (59). Jake Blount just assumes Singer understands him. Singer never giveshim reason to believe otherwise. Nevertheless, Singer writes about Blount in a letter toAntonapoulos, “The one with the mustache I think is crazy” (183). He also writesAntonapoulos that Blount thinks “he and I have a secret together but I do not know whatit is” (183). Jake Blount thinks Singer understands him when he actually does not. Another character searching for understanding is Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland.Dr. Copeland is a black doctor with ideas that on one seems to understand regardless ofhow hard he tries to make them comprehend. His daughter, Portia, says that when she wasa girl, he was “all the time studying by hisself” (41). Dr. Copeland is well educated andthis separates him from the rest of his family. They do not understand why he has alwaysfelt the need to educate them. At a Christmas party, Dr. Copeland talks to the guestsabout Karl Marx and what he stood...
