Introduction
The heart is a lonely heart is a novel that created literally sensation in American literature history. This book was the first to be awarded for the recognition of plight of the oppressed, the mistreated, the forgotten and the rejected populations of the United States of America (Johnson 23). The novel vividly describes how man struggle against isolation. The author, Carson McCullers wrote the novel with the main theme being to illustrate the spiritual isolation that result in an in-depth human conditions.
The story through its well selected characters is able to clearly make the reader to acknowledge how the characters are isolated by the society and how they struggle against the isolated nature that the society subjects them to. The novel is based on a town to the south of USA called Georgia, which has a cosmopolitan setting. The main characters in the novel represent a wide variety of people comprising of the rejected, the damned, and the voiceless individuals of the society.
This group of people according to the novel represents the isolated individuals, who have to fight against their boredom and loneliness in various ways that are not morally upright. Some of these characters fight loneliness by engaging themselves in heavy drinking prostitution, use of drugs and sex. Other individuals go to an extent of manifesting depravity and violent means to get their lives going. Worse still other individuals fell into addiction of hard drugs such as heroine. Mick for example who is a character in the book strives to fight their loneliness by searching for beauty (McCullers 25).
John Singer a character in the novel is one of the isolated people in a small town in the state of Georgia. Singer is deaf and struggles his way out in order to live happily. As any other human being in the town, Singer is described as one character who loves those who do not comprehend what he says in order to take advantage of them when socializing to them (McCullers 12).
The author of the novel has given the article a clear, definite and well planned flow of the story. Each character in the novel exhibits his/her own character and personality but the personality and traits of the characters keeps on changing when the character comes into contact with other characters in the story. The book explains how the isolated population exhibits hope to finally dominate the earth. The book further illustrates that democracy is vital in order to create some hope in the minds of the population (Spencer 12). This paper therefore discusses how man struggles against isolation in relation to Carson McCullers’ novel.
Discussion
Carson McCullers brings out the theme of isolation using a four year aged boy who is disabled and walks along with his nurse and they came across a convent. On reaching at the convent, the boy was able to see other children in the convent who were eating ice creams and having a party. Due to the young boy’s age he was tempted to go inside and join the other children but he was denied the chance to join the other children by the nurse. The main reason for this denial was because the boy did not belong to the catholic denomination (McCullers 32).
According to Carson McCullers the boy was denied the opportunity to join other children in the party because he was disabled and not because of his denominational faith (Spencer 4). This according to the author is in itself a very strong form of isolation that befalls the class of the disabled people in their live. The boy had non-contiguous diseases nor processed any harmful traits but was denied entry to the convent where other children of his age were having fun this kind of mentality according to Carson McCullers is not rational and it reveals how the society was not exhibiting any affirmative action to enhance the rights of the special groups of people in the population.
The boy passed along the convent for the second time and wished to get in because he thought that there was a party going on there. This second time now, the boy found out that the convent’s gate was closed and he needed to get inside so he decided to try climbing on the walls of the convent so as to get in but his efforts were frustrated by his disability.
According to the author, this is how the disable struggle to fit in the society despite the isolation that befalls them. The author uses the example of this boy who despite being isolated to join his fellow children had to find all the possible means to join the children in the convent but any effort seemed not to bear fruits.
The author’s work on the cases of isolation of the rejected people continued in search of how this group of people struggle to fit with other members of the society (Spencer 10). The author tells a story of a deaf and blind who in the novel is called John Singer, this man despite being isolated by majority of people whom he came across he had a lot of love for these same people who were not able to understand his speaking signs.
According to the author, Singer is a symbol of the disabled people in the society and she argues that these groups of people have very positive motives to those who can understand their problems and therefore appreciate the way they communicate or the way they use other symbols to refer to something. The author says that, “The deaf mute, Singer, is a symbol of infirmity, and he loves a person who is incapable of receiving his love” (McCullers 50).
From the author’s perspective, the disable like Singer struggle to be compatible with their societies by loving people who are not able to understand what they say or speak. They try al their best to communicate with the main objective of being loved and accepted in their society. The author say that she understands them and when she comes in contact with individuals who are disabled such as Singer she becomes deaf and uses her skills to communicate to them. She says that by empathise with them i.e. getting into their shoes one is able to relate to them, communicate with them and share love and understanding which this group of people desperately need.
The author argues that these people should not be isolated because it is the nature that plays its role and determine that one is healthy, deaf, dumb or even blind (McCullers 76). The author argues that every one should learn that these isolated people love those who isolate them in order to be integrated with the society and therefore loving these people contributes a lot to their struggle for being integrated with the other members of the society.
The author continues to show how the rejected and the disabled are isolated in the society by the way she answers the questions from the people who asks her why she is interested in this field of writing. According to the author, their teacher taught them that when it comes to writing, a writer is supposed to writing about what exists in his/her midst or backyard.
Writing about the isolated in the society just needs imagination and well organized communication and appreciating the conditions that exist on what is written about. According to McCullers (13), “it is only with imagination and reality that you get to know the things a novel requires.”
People ask the author the reasons why she did not go back to the south town of Georgia where the novel setting is based. The author says that it is due to the emotional experience and the childhood memories that come back to her mind. The author says that the town is full of antagonism and love. According to (McCullers 45) the author says that “When I go back South I always get into arguments, so that a visit to Columbus in Georgia is a stirring up of love and antagonism.”
The author says that the south town is full of love because the high numbers of the isolated people tend to love the ones who isolate them in order to develop a close relationship. The author explains this love as a struggle because it does not build up from the normal way but it develops with emotions. Therefore the love between the isolated and the rest of the people in the society can only result when there is love that develops between these two groups of people.
The author argues that many writers are not able to base their writing on their childhood environment (Johnson 29). But from the author’s perspective, the writings that are based on a childhood environment have a broad base of truth of what he or she is writing about. The author based her story on the south town of Georgia where she grew because what her novel says is evident about what she learnt during her childhood.
McCullers (44) states that “the voices reheard from childhood have a true pitch and the foliage — the trees of childhood — are remembered more exactly.” The author of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter has expressed the concern of basing the setting of her novel in her childhood backyard with the aim of showing that the isolated really love to live a social life and that is why the deaf man Singer loves those who do not understand what he says in pursuit of trying to get attention from those who isolate him.
One of the novels main characters Biff Brannon represents some of the characters whom the author describes as those who understand how nature is. Biff Brannon confessed to his wife that he has a “special feeling for the sick and cripples” (McCullers 32).
The above mentioned character is depicted as a physically healthy individual however; he loves to socialize with the disabled people. This is seen in the way he likes doing things from his heart. That is the reason why the author notes that, “there is need for one to be his or her real self” (McCullers 112). The author says that, when you associate with the impotent you should become impotent and when you go to the deaf you should become deaf. Biff Brannon therefore understand the struggles that are encountered by the disabled in their search of love. This character developed a connection with the crippled and the sick despite of their status and because of his principle of understanding he won a lot of love from the isolated individual.
The author illustrates different forms of isolation. Dr. Copeland Mady for example, is isolated from society on the basis of him being alienated than all the other members of his family and than all the rest of his black society. The author describes Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland as a well educated and knowledgeable man amongst his black community in his small southern town and that he understands the problems of his people (McCullers 102).
From the author’s perspective, this character is isolated from the way he expresses himself when giving speeches, it is an indication that he is educated. The people of the south town claim that this character’s intellectual capacity makes him not to be understood by the other people and that is the reason of his isolation. The novel defines Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland as a character who is very principled. This character believes that upgrading his education levels will improve a person’s view on life (McCullers 100). This young character therefore went to the north to enhance his education.
When this character came back to the south town he had one mission which was to employ the education he had acquired in the north to improving the lives of the black people in the south. This character was not accepted well despite his mission to give what he had acquired to the people of his home town. From Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland’s view the people in his hometown are primitive and this he attributes to their ignorance. The author therefore provides the different scenarios that define different forms of isolation that existed in the southern town (Linguvic 23).
Conclusion
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is novel that displays the kind of isolation that is common in many societies and how such isolations affect those who are isolated. The author further explains what challenges the isolated people encounter and the efforts they make in order to be accepted back to their respective societies. The novel uses its characters to show the reasons that make a character to be isolated from his/her society.
One of such character who is isolated is a deaf and blind man whose name is Singer. The young man really needs to be integrated to the society by his fellow members despite his disability. Singer loves everyone who does not hear what he say, the reason of this being that he would wish to socialize with everyone irrespective of whether they will be able to communicate.
The author uses another example of the rejected members in the society who is Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland who is isolated for the reason that he is educated and alienated. This has character learnt the importance of education and want to use it to help his people who are instead neglecting him.
The author portrays the people of the south town as being ignorant people who do not realize how nature operates. According to the author the people of the south town should learn how nature is and learn why it is good to live with people in a social way.
Works Cited
Johnson, Thomas. The Horror in the Mansion: Gothic Fiction in the Works of Carson McCullers. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Dissertation Abstracts, 2004.
Linguvic, Linda. Tugs at Chord of Isolation We All Have. New York City: Oxford University Press, 2002.
McCullers, Carson. The Heart Is a Lonely Heart. Boston: Mariner Book, 2004.
Spencer, Virginia. The Lonely Hunter. A biography of Carson McCullers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Spencer, Virginia. Understanding Carson McCullers. New York: University of South Carolina Press, 2005.