preview

Overcoming Isolation In The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

Decent Essays

The Lonely Hunters In The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, overcoming isolation becomes a major theme as the characters try and discover what makes them feel complete. These characters use John Singer, Antonopoulos, and the past to help them try and conquer this feeling. The characters in the novel have no real friends to help them surmount this feeling, so they look to unlikely people and things; like a deaf-mute, or a man who is incredibly rude and inconsiderate. The title even alludes to the loneliness each character will have to overcome. Mick Kelly, Doctor Copeland, and Jake Blount all look to Singer to overcome their isolation. Despite the fact that Singer is a deaf-mute, they see him as the only person who can understand them. “Mick Kelly …show more content…

“Even Biff Brannon came to the mute’s room one night. But as he could never stay away from the restaurant for long, he left in a half-hour.” (McCullers 92) But after his wife dies, he begins looking to the past. He does this by doing things she would do such as; sewing, wearing perfume, wanting to become a mother, wearing his mother’s wedding ring. He also begins looking through Alice’s cosmetics and finds a bottle of her perfume and starts wearing it. “Biff uncorked the bottle. He stood shirtless before the mirror and dabbed some of the perfume on his dark, hairy, armpits. The scent made him stiffen. He exchanged a deadly secret glance with himself in the mirror and stood motionless.” (McCullers 224) Wearing the perfume brings back memories of Alice, but also reminds him of the death he felt with her. The only way he can escape his loneliness is to remember the past, he begins to play music that reminds him of the good times of his marriage. “These pieces were like the Agua Florida in the way they made him remember. Everything. Through the first year when he was happy and when she seemed happy even too.” (McCullers 236) Despite doing all these things to overcome the loneliness he feels, he can’t seem to discover what he

Get Access