A short disclaimer: I haven't posted recently in a few months due to sleepiness. It's my excuse and I'm sticking with it, although I have been following the news ever closely. (The stack of New York Times on my bedroom floor has reached 20-high, methinks.) Yet I want to get back into the swing of things with literature instead of news.
Last week, I was having a gander at the classics section of my local library, a highly-frequented hang out. I noticed the library had stocked The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Curiously, I picked it up and scanned the inside cover. The synopsis gave details about Mick Kelly, the de facto protagonist, and her adventures in a small Southern town. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is essentially an autobiography of McCullers's childhood. (That part reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye, minus the overly sensitive protagonist.) I checked out the book and dove into it, soon finding myself abandoning the other books I'm supposed to be reading. (Haha, take that, Hamlet! Something is indeed rotten in the state of Denmark, and time IS out of joint.)
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter begins with two mutes who cohabitate and can be considered lifelong friends. The plotline does not distinguish which one of the mutes will become essential to the story, but instead follows the mental decline of one of them, Spiros Antonapoulos. When Antonapoulos is sent to a mental institution, the other mute (I cringe at referring to him this way, but characters in the book do worse), John Singer, is left struggling to pull himself together.
The book shifts viewpoints frequently, and the next two following Singer's are of Mick Kelly and Biff Brannon. Brannon owns the New York Cafe, which seems to attract a variety of characters. It also seems to be, in a very theatrical style, the meeting place of all of the novel's characters at one point. Brannon's inner thoughts display McCullers's fondness for the eccentrics of society. As the inside cover said that McCullers's sought out odd friends, Brannon tends to cop meals and drinks for "unfortunate" folks. Such sympathy is shown to another of the novel's major characters, Jake Blount.
Blount is first introduced as a down-and-out with a ridiculous mustache, who can drink more than a fish and hasn't been sober in a few weeks. Brannon allows Blount to scare away other customers (as Brannon's wife has scolded him) out of kindness and curiosity. Blount displays knowledge and dialect that shows he has been all over, and has been highly educated in some areas of life, and yet is familiar with hard labor.
The night the reader is introduced to Blount and Brannon (with Singer in the background, for he dines at the New York Cafe for every meal), Brannon tries to talk to Blount and receives outrage in return. Blount leaves the cafe and begins ravaging the town, only to bring back a Negro doctor. This is the only moment when Doctor Copeland makes an appearance in the New York Cafe, yet his anger is remarkable even then. Doctor Copeland was sought after in order to treat Blount's self-inflicted injuries caused by Blount hitting his head against a wall. There is some deliberation, and John Singer agrees (via written notes) to take the inebriated Blount back to his room to sleep off the drink and clean himself up. Brannon seems relieved in a disconnected way at this development, yet it will prove to be the beginning of the theme of the book.
Ahh, but I'm out of time. This will be added on to later. I had to get the introduction out of the way before I start analyzing characters.
Cheers!
I read this book the summer before I was a sophomore in high school.
I'm pretty sure that it made me completely confused, so I look forward to what you have to say on it.
The only thing that truly sticks out in my mind is at one point Biff Brannon says something about how he only washes his entire body a couple of times a year.
Ahhh, sort of. True, he only washes most of his body a few times a year, but his limbs and face are kept spotless. He also commented about how he coveted his genitalia, which I found a bit pedophile-like, especially with his monster crush on Mick Kelly. I'm still puzzling most of that out, but I kind of left the hygeine issue drop. After all, it's set in 1939 and times are rough. How about the flies in the food Biff serves, eh?
Cheers from Union Jane
"I have only ever made one prayer a very short one: "God, make my enemies ridiculous." And God made it so." --Voltaire
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." --Eleanor Roosevelt
I absolutely agree, but I wouldn't think that the author would take time to talk about his hygenic habits if he wasn't trying to get across something.
Although the genitalia bit and then the Mick Kelly thing does make sense...
There was something about a black man working at a carnival in that novel too wasn't there? Like I said, it's been a long time but it's all starting to come back now I think...
A few people worked at the carnival, which I personally believe was a factory. Jake Blount ends up working at the factory as a mechanic, trying to convert the workers to socialism and a better life. Black men at the carnvial...At the end of the novel, there are multiple fights involving racial conflict. A huge one breaks out that involves Blount, and a supporting character I think was named Lancy Davis. Earlier in the novel, Davis had written an essay about how to fix racial injustice that was empowering, but left the judge Doctor Copeland despondent about the education of black youth. Other than that, I can't think of any characters involved in the carnival-factory.
Cheers from Union Jane
"I have only ever made one prayer a very short one: "God, make my enemies ridiculous." And God made it so." --Voltaire
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." --Eleanor Roosevelt
ill definetly take a look at that novel