"The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers: Character Study Analysis

I. Introduction

In Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, the central character is John

Singer. He is a deaf-mute whom four lonely individuals, each obsessed with a vision of

his or her place in the world, share their deepest secrets with: An adolescent who desires

to write symphonies, a drunk who believes he holds all the answers, a black physician

whose desire is to motivate his people to demand their rightful place in American society,

and a cafe owner whose secret wish is sexually ambiguous. Yet all of them hold the same

belief that the deaf Mr. Singer understands and validates his or her obsession.

II. First Impression & Appearance


We first meet Singer in a small, southern U.S. city set in the pre-World War II era.

His first appearance is explained through a contrast between Singer and his Greek lover,

Antonapoulos:

“The two friends were very different. The one who always steered th...