I recently finished reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. It was a Christmas gift from Megan last year. In the front cover she wrote “I miss you. Love, Megan.” This inscription couldn’t have been more apt.
Tired of all the young adult fiction I had consumed over the last month, I chose this book off of my “to read” shelf without any expectation or forethought. I soon realized this was one of those AP English that-probably-has-hidden-meaning kind of books. The narrative was easy to read (no Billy Budd nonsense here) and intriguing enough to keep me interested the whole way through.
As the title suggests, the resounding emotion behind all of the experiences of the characters is loneliness. In order for this loneliness to maintain its potency, each character also experiences a type of love, whether it is genuine, fleeting, or obsessive.
As I got to know each character, I found I was able to categorize them into one of two categories: those in love with a person and those in love with an ideal. In the instances where one character loved another, it was always unrequited. And as an ideal can never reciprocate feelings of love, those who loved an ideal also never had these feelings requited.
Endings always feel like the most important part of a book to me, especially in an ensemble narrative. Why end with that particular character thinking or saying that particular thing? I feel as though it has to relate to the rest of the novel, to the heart of what the author intended to convey, for it to be the final image reverberating in the reader’s mind.
I had to read the last two pages of this book twice. The ending seemed to deal with balancing on the precipice of a higher understanding of the meaning of life only to return to the mundane routine of things. Would a higher understanding let us connect to people with similar ideals and thus rid us of the tendency to fall into loneliness? Perhaps it is our dependency on the mundane routine aspects of life that alienate us from each other.
The character in the final scene was paralyzed with fear as he was faced with this new possibility. I think it is this fear of the unknown that makes us cling to the mundane and the loneliness that comes right along with it.
So did you like the book?
I remember rereading the last pages, too. We’re twins. I liked the mute. Why would you think to write a book about a mute? Very interesting. Have you read about the author? You should.
Yes I did like the book.
I liked the mute a lot too. Which just made that one part…well, you know. No spoilers.
And yeah, why would a deaf mute be your main character? I was thinking just that, actually, when I first started the book. And it wasn’t even overly symbolic, like the blind man that sees everything or whatever. He was just a regular guy that liked having company.
And no, I haven’t read about the author, but I will now!