The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" is a novel that explores the lives of several poignant characters navigating their struggles in a Southern town during the early 20th century. At the center is John Singer, a hearing-impaired man who becomes a confidant for others, longing for the companionship of his best friend, Spiros Antonapoulos, who faces a tragic decline after being institutionalized. Spiros, a jolly candy maker, experiences a heartbreaking fate that deeply affects Singer. Other key figures include Biff Brannon, the owner of a diner who grapples with loneliness and unfulfilled desires, and the restless Jake Blount, a Marxist drifter advocating for the working class despite his personal demons. Mick Kelly, a teenager with aspirations of becoming a musician, faces familial responsibilities and economic hardship that threaten her dreams. Doctor Copeland, an African American physician committed to uplifting his community, struggles with personal and societal challenges. Portia, his daughter, embodies resilience while caring for her family in the wake of tragedy. Together, these characters reflect themes of isolation, longing, and the human condition, illustrating the profound connections and disconnections within their lives.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Lula Carson Smith McCullers
First published: 1940
Genre: Novel
Locale: A small town in the Deep South
Plot: Social realism
Time: 1938–39
Spiros Antonapoulos, a hearing-impaired Greek man who makes candy at his cousin's shop. Antonapoulos is fat and jolly. He loves food and lives alone with his only friend, John Singer, with whom he signs. One day, Antonapoulos gets very sick. His friend nurses him back to health, but he is never the same. He begins acting out in public. He is arrested for assault and urinating in public, and eventually, his cousin puts him in a mental institution, far away. There, Antonapoulos gets sick again. After a year, he dies.
John Singer, the friend of Spiros Antonapoulos. Although he is hearing impaired and cannot speak, he writes out what he wants to say on small note cards with a silver pencil and reads lips. He is very neat and very kind. He often sits by himself and plays chess. After Antonapoulos is taken away, Singer moves into a room at the Kelly family's boardinghouse and eats all of his meals at the nearby New York Café. One night, he brings a stranger, Jake Blount, back to his room to sober him up. Blount takes a liking to Singer, and Singer becomes a cherished friend and confidant for a number of people in the town. He is very polite to them, but at heart, he still longs for the company of Antonapoulos, whom he visits every few months. On his third visit to the asylum, he is told that Antonapoulos has died. Bereft, Singer shoots himself in the chest.
Biff Brannon, owner of the twenty-four-hour diner the New York Café along with his wife, Alice. He has a thick, black beard and an unreadable face. He is kind to all of his customers, but particularly kind to those with some physical ailment—like Singer, with whom he develops a friendship. Sometimes he visits Singer in his room at the Kelly house to talk. In 1938, Alice gets sick and dies. Brannon is lonely but occupies himself decorating his small apartment and doting on his niece, Baby. He harbors a secret longing for the teenaged Mick Kelly that is both romantic and paternal, but this crush fades away. He wishes he had had children but contents himself taking care of his customers, particularly Jake Blount. One night, when the café is deserted and the streets are empty, he has an epiphany in which he sees the whole of human history. Frightened, he returns to his work.
Jake Blount, an alcoholic and a drifter. He travels from town to town and job to job, restless for satisfaction. He is a Marxist who hopes to help the town's mill workers—who labor every day for next to nothing—to see the scourge of capitalism, but they laugh in his face. Blount spends his first week in the town drunk in Brannon's café, but after Singer takes him home and gives him the solace of a listening ear, Blount finds a job as a security guard at a carnival. He lives in a shack with no electricity. His only happiness is talking (incessantly) to Singer, who listens politely. One night at the carnival, there is an enormous brawl—which Blount was powerless to stop—in which two young black men are killed. Blount stops by Brannon's café one last time and leaves town.
Mick Kelly, a teenager poised between childhood and womanhood. She is one of six children, and she is often charged with taking care of the two youngest, George “Bubber” and Ralph. Her family owns a boardinghouse. Kelly longs to be a musician. She spends hours dreaming about conducting orchestras and composing symphonies. When she hears a symphony by Beethoven for the first time, listening in the trees late at night in the yard of a family who owns a radio, she beats herself bloody in a passionate rage. In her mind, the only person who understands the depth of her longing is Singer, whom she follows everywhere. When Bubber, who is seven, accidentally shoots a young girl named Baby Wilson, the Kelly family is forced to pay Baby's exorbitant medical bills. They become destitute. When a job opens up at Wool-worth's in town, Kelly feels compelled to take it even though she knows it means she may never go back to school. Her music languishes, but she resolves to figure out a way to escape the prison of the daily grind.
Doctor Benedict Mady Copeland, an African American doctor. He believes that it is his one true purpose to tend to the sick in the town's poverty-stricken black community, and that by doing so, he will raise up the African American race. Like Jake Blount, Copeland is a Marxist, though he hates Blount. The only white person he likes is John Singer, whom he visits often. Copeland was once married to a woman named Daisy, but one night, in a fit of rage, he beat her. She left him and took their four children to live with her at her father's house. Portia, Copeland's daughter, is the only child that comes to visit. He was a hard father and bitterly disappointed that his children did not meet his expectations for them. Still, he is beloved by the community, where many of the children are named after him. Copeland's son Willie is arrested and tortured so badly that his legs need to be amputated. Copeland is devastated and seeks help at the town's white courthouse. He is thrown out, beaten, and jailed.
Portia, Doctor Copeland's daughter. She works for the Kelly family and, with Mick Kelly, largely raises Bubber and Ralph. She is married to a man named Highboy, and they live with her brother Willie. The three of them are very happy and have a financial arrangement that allows them to live comfortably on their three incomes. After Willie is arrested and maimed, Portia is never the same. She takes care of her father, even when he is cruel to her.