The Heart is a Lonely Hunter describes southern Gothic Tradition started in the southern U.S. States dating mostly from the 20th century. While Marxism continues to be studied in the United States today, its heyday in America was during the period of 1930s. Carson McCullers, along with other literary intellectuals of the 1930s, found herself absorbed in conversation in which Marx was the main topic. The Marxist ideas, she and her contemporaries passionately discussed are present in her first novel, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, which deals with oppression and exploitation in southern cotton mill society. There are several themes involved in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter specifically, alienation, oppression, loneliness and isolation. The lack
…show more content…
The people in this town living by the river who work in the mills. People who are almost as much in need as we are ourselves. This hatred is a great evil, and no good can ever come from it.“That The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is to be interpreted on more than one level of Meaning is undeniable. Carson McCullers herself has called her first novel a “Parable in modern form”; and, while reviewers do not take very seriously her statement as to the meaning of this parable, practically every one realize the importance of symbolism in the book”. – Frank Durham (247 literary criticism vol.100).
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is regarded as a notable first novel and a fitting introduction to McCullers’ work. The novel is often discussed as a political parable on fascism, particularly the psychological conditions that make fascism possible. The religious imagery in the novel has also been a recurrent topic of critical interest, and several critics perceive the character of John
Singer to be a Christ like figure. Commentators have provided feminist interpretations of the novel, and investigated the autobiographical aspects of the story. Some critics view The Heart …show more content…
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is an allegorical novel.
At any rate the idea of making her protagonist a deaf-mute was a happy one, not merely for the obvious reason that he constitutes an excellent symbol of isolation but also because the nature of his handicap contributes greatly to the irony that is at the centre of the novel. The essential loneliness of individuals in a world full of other individuals as lonely as themselves is the paradox about which The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is constructed. Befriending schemes offer lonely and isolated older people vital companionship and emotional support. The loneliness and isolation among the aging population is a challenge we cannot ignore both at an individual andat wider community level.
There is in Singer more than a slight resemblance to Prince Myshkin in The Idiot of
Dostoevsky: about both characters there is an aura of holiness which is associated with their simplicity and both inspire confidences from the most unlikely persons. In neither novel is the attempt to make a Christ figure of the protagonist entirely successful, and both books suffer
The people in this town living by the river who work in the mills. People who are almost as much in need as we are ourselves. This hatred is a great evil, and no good can ever come from it.“That The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is to be interpreted on more than one level of Meaning is undeniable. Carson McCullers herself has called her first novel a “Parable in modern form”; and, while reviewers do not take very seriously her statement as to the meaning of this parable, practically every one realize the importance of symbolism in the book”. – Frank Durham (247 literary criticism vol.100).
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is regarded as a notable first novel and a fitting introduction to McCullers’ work. The novel is often discussed as a political parable on fascism, particularly the psychological conditions that make fascism possible. The religious imagery in the novel has also been a recurrent topic of critical interest, and several critics perceive the character of John
Singer to be a Christ like figure. Commentators have provided feminist interpretations of the novel, and investigated the autobiographical aspects of the story. Some critics view The Heart …show more content…
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is an allegorical novel.
At any rate the idea of making her protagonist a deaf-mute was a happy one, not merely for the obvious reason that he constitutes an excellent symbol of isolation but also because the nature of his handicap contributes greatly to the irony that is at the centre of the novel. The essential loneliness of individuals in a world full of other individuals as lonely as themselves is the paradox about which The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is constructed. Befriending schemes offer lonely and isolated older people vital companionship and emotional support. The loneliness and isolation among the aging population is a challenge we cannot ignore both at an individual andat wider community level.
There is in Singer more than a slight resemblance to Prince Myshkin in The Idiot of
Dostoevsky: about both characters there is an aura of holiness which is associated with their simplicity and both inspire confidences from the most unlikely persons. In neither novel is the attempt to make a Christ figure of the protagonist entirely successful, and both books suffer