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With the publication of her first novel, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Carson McCullers, all of twenty-three, became a literary sensation. With its profound sense of moral isolation and its compassionate glimpses into its characters inner lives, the novel is considered McCullers finest work, an enduring masterpiece first published by Houghton Mifflin in 1940. At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who becomes the confidant for all various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. Each one yearns for escape from small town life. When Singers mute companion goes insane, Singer moves into the Kelly house, where Mick Kelly, the books heroine (and loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music. Wonderfully attune to the spiritual isolation that underlies the human condition, and with a deft sense for racial tensions in the South, McCullers spins a haunting, unforgettable story that gives voice to the rejected, the forgotten, and the mistreated - and, through Mick Kelly, gives voice to the quiet, intensely personal search for beauty.Richard Wright praised Carson McCullers for her ability to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness. She writes with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming, said the NEW YORK TIMES. McCullers became an overnight literary sensation, but her novel has endured, just as timely and powerful today as when it was first published. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER is Carson McCullers at her most compassionate, endearing best. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCuller Deep in the heart of Summer, sweet is life to me still, But my heart is a lonely hunter that hunts On a lonely hill Refrain from The Lonely Hunter, a poem by Fiona MacLeod credited as the source of the final title of Carson McCullers first novel. In the novel, The pivot for all the characters is John Singer, the deaf mute who ironically becomes the good listener, a magnet for the confidences of four localswho choose not to fit into their worldMick Kelly, an artistic teenager whose titles and graffiti reveal a darker side to her personality; Jake Blount, an itinerant socialist; Benedict Mady Copeland, a consumptive black physician; and Biff Brannon, the owner of the New York Caf who is widowed .They are drawn to him, as lonely people are to someone they believe will listen and understand.They each create a different idol in Singer. For Mick, he is a man who feels similarly about music as she does. For Doctor Copeland, he is the only white man who understands his passion to achieve justice for black people. Blout finds that Singer is just as deeply concerned about socialism as he is and for Biff, he represents all that Biff sees in himself: a quiet, shrewd spectator of the human state. In reality Singer is none of these things but he provides a wordless objectivity, in a world of conflict and oppression, in which they trust, will bring them peace. They never step out of themselves to discover that Singer listens, but he doesnt understand, nor do they realize that he, too, is lonely and isolatedor why. Just as these four impose their concept of Singer upon him, he has his own idolhis companion of 10 years, Spiros Antonapoulos. While Singers lonely friends project upon him the character of a wise, knowing, understanding man, Singer in turn imposes a similar personality on Antonapoulos. As a fellow mute, Antonapoulos is all Singer has, so he both idealises and idolises himin the same way that Mick, Blount, Copeland, and, Brannon idealize and idolize Singer. Singer thinks that he has found someone who really cares for him; but as McCullers makes clear, Antonapoulos has no genuine affection for Singer. What he really cares for is food. In the end, no one really gets through to anyone, which is as sad a conclusion about human contact as can be imagined. Each character is longing for something. Each character is to some extent, suffering with delusion. Each character is isolated. Yet all of them are so similar, similar in their suffering, yet still so entirely different. John Singer cannot communicate with people because he cannot speak. Mick Kelly cannot communicate with anyone because her family does not share her ambition. Biff Brannon is left alone when his wife dies and Dr Copeland is isolated from his family and other black people in the community because of his intelligence and opinionated viewpoints. Similarly, Jake Blout is alone in his radical social notions and this only detaches him further. All it seems are interlocked in some incomprehensible secret suffering. All the characters feel profoundly alone to some extent, and all of them desperately need to communicate their feelings with someone who understands them. McCullers explores the idea that all people feel a need to create some sort of guiding principle. Singer becomes this figure for the main characters of the novel; they believe he has endless wisdom about many things and they turn to him in times of turmoil, always asking him to help them accomplish their goals and comfort them during times of doubt. We are apt to believe that there is hope. The character of John Singer also reminds us that there are kind, generous people out there, lending an ear to fellow human beings when they are most afraid of going unheard. But prejudice still roams, loneliness has not ceased and the frailty of the human spirit is always at stake - because of t