An Existentialist Analysis Of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers is considered to be among the most significant American writers of the twentieth century. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is considered her best work which was published in 1940. There were five characters but the novel"pivots"on one, a deaf mute called John Singer. The other four"sang"to him the songs they believed no one would listen to: Mick Kelly, a thirteen-year-old girl with music dreams; a frustrated black doctor—Benedict Copeland—with dreams of racial uplift; Jake Blount, a twenty-nine-year-old haggard radical agitator and Biff Brannon, the forty-four-year-old caféowner who is a thoughtful observer and recognizes that Singer is a"home-made God"for them all.At the turn of last century, Nietzsche predicted the death of God. He pointed out that the God is no longer there as the spiritual home of the western people. Entering the 20th century, with the impact of industrialization and modern civilization, the American South underwent a thorough change. Commercialism became the first importance. A new set of values replaced the old one. Human connections became materialized. People felt lonely and helpless. Carson was born and lived in such a period of time. The formerly religious belief which was seen as spiritual support began to vacillate in people's mind. The continual catastrophe was a tremendous blow to the American people's confidence. It seemed that the almighty God couldn't save people from depression either. Under the shadow of Great Depression, religion was so pale and weak. Carson could felt other people's loneliness, vacuousness and confusion deeply, at the same time, she was also afflicted with the belief crisis. The characters in her novel—The Heart is a Lonely Hunter were doing all their efforts to escape from loneliness, but in vain. Without belief, people lose the ability for self-redemption, leaving solitude and vacuousness only. People felt that they cannot control their own destiny, therefore they believe the world is absurd. In many ways existentialism is the unique and specific portrayal of the psychological predicament of contemporary Western man. After World WarⅡ, existentialism occupies an important position in France. The representative of existentialism in France is Sartre, he insists that without God, the old ethics is also doomed. There is nowhere for those old values to survive. If God is not in his heaven, then'his'values have no home either. In Sartrean responsibility, I do not only choose specific actions. I have made myself this way; at some very fundamental level, I have chosen to be this kind of person. So we were not created by God but created by ourselves.(Myerson, 2002:168) Most of the people would think existentialism is a dark and pessimistic philosophy, void of hope,and they thought that Sartre and something of his called"existentialism"encourage gloomy defeatism instead of constructive hope. However, the opinions of existentialist thinkers were often optimistic about the future of human beings. Though the protagonists in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter think life is absurd and worthless, they are full of fearless spirit. They search the meaning of life actively to realize their value of existence. At this point, McCullers is somewhat in accordance with Sartre. This work showed the modern people's exploration and quest for their own existence and value, and filled with strong sense of modern consciousness.By analyzing the reality of the American South in the 1930s, the first and second chapters of this paper mainly discusses the reasons for people's isolation in Carson's best novel—The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. To construct this thesis, the third chapter of this paper is going to use existentialism approach to explore the philosophical thinking and ideas contained in Carson McCullers'words, and further re-examine the main characters in the novel from the point of philosophic theory of existentialism which affirms that they are not decadent or negative people, but existentialists who shapes their own internal nature and always face future with confidence. Here, Carson McCullers offers us a hope that human beings have the potential or possibilities in finding their true selves through self-endeavor.