The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is a tragic but beautiful story about genuine human feelings and emotions. It tells us about friendship, love, despair, longing, regrets and many other things which either make us suffer or fill our hearts with joy and happiness. It is touching and heart-shattering as a life itself.
John Singer is one of the main characters of the story and it is impossible to not relate oneself to him. It is true that for people who don’t have any problem with hearing and speaking can’t fully understand deaf-mute people. Their world is full of mysteries and secrets for hearies. Not to mention that there are so many questions about a life as a deaf-mute person one might be ashamed to ask. However, this experience isn’t so alien for those who can hear and speak. It happens often that we, people who doesn’t have any trouble with hearing and speaking, fail to find needed words or don’t know how to voice our thoughts. If you remember, Blount has been always suffering from this problem. He has read a lot of “wise” books, learned an impressive number of sophisticated ideas, but couldn’t express them in such a way, so that others would believe and follow him. What else do hearies have in common with deaf people? These are troubles with an ability to hear.
It doesn’t mean that a person who we talk to listens to us or pays any attention to ours words. We might hear but we fail to understand. John Singer couldn’t either speak or hear, but he could read lips and be genuinely interested. His big heart allowed him to cope with numerous barriers to communication. His story proves that a compassionate heart is more effective than ears. John’s story is also interesting from a psychological point of view. It might seem to be strange that he commits suicide because a person he considered to be his friend dies. Spiros Antonapoulos proves to be a terrible friend in the end but it doesn’t matter to Singer. His life ends the day he finds out that his friend is no longer alive. It turns out to be that a life without any hope is a useless one.
The other characters’ stories are less tragic than Singer’s but not less mesmerizing. It is difficult not to feels sorry for them when they are sad and broken, to be happy for them when they have something to look forward to. Carson McCullers’s characters are not flawless, they make mistake and are not always right, but they are people with big hearts and aspirations. This book doesn’t give answers, but it does teach its readers an important lesson in compassion, respect and equality. Our main priority should be kindness. It is no wonder that Biff, Mick, Jake and others talk about loneliness so often. The problem is that a contemporary person is so self-absorbed that it is difficult for him/her to notice that others need him or her. So let’s be attentive not only to ourselves but others too.
