The Georgia-born McCullers lived a life that was as troubled and tragic as her work. He also touches the lives of the alcoholic Jake Blount a black physician, Dr. Singer lives in a boarding house where he befriends Mick Kelly, the teenage daughter of the owners. John Singer is a deaf mute silverware engraver who moves to a small town to be near his mentally-challenged companion who's been institutionalized. Set in her native South, it dealt with isolated, damaged people who reach out to others, but are unable to communicate or help them or themselves. As they talk, Mick explains that in a special way Singer's quiet strength has given her courage to face whatever her future may be.Ĭarson McCullers's first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), published when she was 22, set the template for most of her future work. Some months thereafter, Mick brings flowers to Singer's grave and meets Dr.

After visiting his friend's grave and saying goodby in sign language, Singer returns to his room and commits suicide. A short time later, Singer goes to visit Antonapoulos and learns that he has been dead for several weeks. Profoundly disturbed by her sexual initiation, she again rejects Singer's friendship. Mick willfully loses her virginity to Harry, the sensitive young brother of one of her classmates, when she realizes that her father's injury has permanently disabled him and she will have to leave school and go to work in order to help support the family. Feelings between Portia and her father become even more strained until Portia learns from Singer of Copeland's illness, and the two are reconciled. Meanwhile, Willie is jailed for defending himself against a group of white men, and subsequently he has a leg amputated after being placed in irons for trying to break jail. Although he takes his friend out for the day, Singer is more lonely than ever when he returns home. Following a successful attempt to win Mick's friendship by encouraging her love for classical music, Singer visits Antonapoulos, who is now suffering from a kidney infection. Copeland's deepest disappointment is that his educated daughter, Portia, works as a domestic and is married to Willie Hamilton, a field hand. Copeland, an embittered segregationist Negro who is secretly dying of cancer. He also tries to establish a rapport with Blount, a semi-alcoholic drifter, and Dr. Because the Kellys' 14-year-old daughter, Mick, resents having to give up her room to him, Singer makes a few tentative efforts to win her friendship. Kelly, who are having financial difficulties as a result of Mr. He finds work there and rents a room in the home of Mr.

When his only companion, a retarded mute, Antonapoulos, is committed to a mental institution, Singer moves to another town in order to be near his friend. John Singer is a deafmute who works as a silverware engraver in a small southern town.

The heart is a lonely hunter