The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club) | Carson McCullers

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club) | Carson McCullers | The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: An Effective Teaching Tool and Genuinely Good Read

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The Heart Is a Lon...

	The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club) Carson McCullers Mariner, 2004 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 157 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Heart of Lonliness

This is an extraordinary work in the way it is the only novel written that truly catches the deaf experience and feelings. That Carson McCullers was herself disabled may be the reason for such insightful empathy in John Singer, the deaf mute whom a host of characters use to ease their own feelings of emptiness and lonliness. That 'Mr Singer' has feelings and human problems they are oblivious to.
This is a masterful novel. I had 'got into' McCullers work by reading her 'Ballad of the Sad Cafe' short story collection and have yet to be anything other than stunned by her wonderful writing. This is a five star novel with bags to spare.

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The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: An Effective Teaching Tool and Genuinely Good Read

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is an ideal book for teachers to educate their students on the influential effect of characterization and an author's ability to create tension and evoke sympathy in the reader. Carson McCullers' compelling mastery of characterization and manipulation of the reader's feelings create a world filled with loneliness and disappointment.
One instance where McCullers manipulates the reader's feelings occurs when different characters in the book visit Singer in his room. Four different characters, Dr. Copeland, Biff, Mick, and Jake discuss their problems with Singer in his room on a regular basis. The trouble is that they are not discussing, but merely telling Singer their problems. They use Singer as a sound board and he just nods serenely. They enjoy this time because they are allowed to speak their mind with no inhibitions and feel as though Singer genuinely agrees with them. In reality, they are deceiving themselves by projecting their imagination of how they want him to respond onto him. Unbeknownst to the reader, McCullers creates enough ambiguity in the reader's knowledge of each character that he begins to pass judgment on the characters according to how he wants them to be. This example provides educators an opportunity to demonstrate the author's ability to influence the reader's emotions by portraying certain events in such a way that they conflict with the reader's desires.
McCullers continues to use the reader's wants to force them to feel the characters' loneliness through John Singer's lack of response to his visitors. The audience wants Singer to respond to the people. The characters are crying out for help and Singer continues to sit and never replies. McCullers refuses to give the reader that satisfaction or else the reader's imagination could not fill in the holes of ambiguity. If Singer were to talk to the people and help them out with their problems, then the tension would relax and everything would work out in the end. The space and distance between the characters that interact on a daily basis create the loneliness both they and the reader feel. This helps students realize that authors intentionally illustrate characters and events in a very specific way in order to elicit certain emotions and expectations in the reader.
The reader's expectations are further heightened as McCuller provides situations in which the conflict could finally be resolved. One night, Singer meets three other mutes and begins to converse with him. This event provokes a sense of excitement in the reader because Singer may finally find someone in which he can relate. His loneliness may be resolved at last. But in the end something is amiss and Singer wants nothing to do with them. And so, the reader gets pulled in and then crushed. Likewise, both Jake Blout and Dr. Copeland live in this small town, love Communism and Marxism, and spend their lives fighting for it. They eventually run into each other and only need to share their thoughts to each other, but they miss the opportunity. They skip over the only person that could relate to their situation and continue to live their lives in sorrow and alone. Because all these experiences promote a sense of hopelessness and loss, students can easily see that authors carefully place situations throughout a book that tie back to a specific objective and feeling.
In addition to unresolved expectations, McCullers successfully uses characterization to elicit sympathy in the reader. For instance, the reader especially bonds with Mick because she is the closest to Singer and like a child. She is the musically talented struggling girl that the readers yearns to see succeed. The beautiful diction by which Mick speaks and the faith felt in her causes the reader to love her. Yet she is tainted. She smokes against the reader's will. She has one shot at a musical scholarship but loses it. There is one shot in the book for a true loving relationship to occur between Mick and Harry and it ends with a fumbling, inarticulate sexual intercourse. The great potential in Mick fails and the reader is left feeling lost and hopeless. Having the opportunity to seriously relate to characters lets the reader emotionally invest in the novel and form a deeper connection with the book, thus making it a better read and profound teaching tool.
Another instance of McCullers' effective use of characterization is seen in Dr. Copeland. Dr. Copeland is the epitome of a crushing figure. He is described as a wrinkled old black man that only wants to help save his people. He has this passion for Marxism and names his children after communist philosophers. Yet his children do not understand him and he cannot seem to get through to anyone he reaches out to. The reader experiences his extreme frustration as he witnesses his family being broken apart and is powerless to stop it. He is constantly attending to the sick while coughing and spitting into a handkerchief. The appeal to the reader's emotions leaves him feeling helpless as he watches Dr. Copeland get sicker and sicker and become a martyr for his people. As teachers and students read The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, they will notice they have developed a new sense of sympathy toward the characters and will regard the book on a more personal level.
Additionally, this novel exudes tension and loss that the reader can feel through McCullers' character Bubber. Bubber, later known as George, symbolizes the reader's relationship and experience with the novel. In the beginning, Bubber is an ignorant and innocent toddler that is merely starting his life in the community. Although he has been introduced to the harsh society, he later learns the true loneliness and cruelty of the world. When Bubber accidentally shoots Baby in the head, his whole world changes. He is loses his innocence and is no longer called Bubber, but his real name George. He has responsibilities and his family treats him as an adult. Comparatively, the reader begins the novel assuming it will be another happy ending story. Experiencing the events through the eyes of various characters exposes the reader to a realistic and depressing life. Therefore, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is unarguably an optimal instrument teachers can draw on to demonstrate the power characterization has on influencing the audience's feelings.
McCullers' extraordinary use of characterization and control of the reader's expectations allow her to create a society full of conflict and tension. She uses each character and his or her experiences to evoke a specific emotion in the reader. These skills collaborate together to form an effective novel that is a perfect tool for teachers to instruct their students in the great power of characterization while students can simultaneously enjoy an enthralling and thought-provoking book. It is greatly recommended for its usefulness in educating students in the power of both one author and one book's ability to instill a new sense of the need for acceptance, love, maturity, and understanding.

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THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT HUNTING!

Consider yourself warned. This book is not about hunting, despite the title. A couple of people do get shot, but they weren't really hunted. The book instead is about a collection of misfits in the South with such names as "Spareribs," "Bubber," and even a deaf mute strangely named "Singer." These people do their best to live their lives, and they seem to find some comfort in setting up one guy as a sort of god-like figure (there is an uber-god who seem to be the only content person in the novel). What happens when your god dies? I guess you keep on going. The lives of these misfits sheds light on personal and inter-personal conflicts. If the soul is the seat of passion and turmoil, of beauty and ugliness, of honor and cowardice, then the South is the soul of America, as far as I can tell from this book. Anyway, like I said in the beginning, this book is not about hunting, but maybe you'll find it worthwhile.

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Incredibly average

I have no idea why this book is considered a classic. It is quite pedestrian and doesn't have a real "voice". It's a decent portrait of some of societies "left behind" people, but nothing rings of literary immortality. Not memorable.

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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