The Lonely Quest For The Self In The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) is written by Carson McCullers (1917-1967)amid the wave of the Southern Renaissance by1920s, where Southern writers steerthe attention from the previous historical romances and glorified heroism to itsuniqueness such as its burden of the history and exploration of Southern identity,bridging tradition of Southern literature with modern civilization. Following in theirfootsteps, McCullers records the loneliness of people who endeavor to seek after theiridentity in a transitional period when such pubic issues as racial and class depression,sense of loss and modern alienation remain to address. With the focus being shifted tothe underprivileged, the grotesques and freaks, her works reveal her humanity.Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, together with the others, arebranded with the universal theme of loneliness and estrangement. What make herdistinct are her humanity, her concerns about the inner world, and the impartialtreatment of the black and other marginalized groups in an age when class and racialdiscrimination runs riot. The faithful account of their sufferings and anxiety in thestruggles to hunt for their self causes concerns as it presents a real pictures withoutembellishing or distorting it.The South undergoes a transitional period since its unique way of life is erodedand undermined under the influence of commercial or industrial economy. Thetraditional Southern values become precarious. What’s worse, the Great Depression,along with the Second World War leave people loss and vulnerable. Set in the Deep South at this age, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter depicts the indomitable hunting of agroup of exiles for their own self. Tortured by the sense of alienation and loneliness,they alone battle against the harassment of poverty and death, ignorance and judges ofthe society, as well as the lure of self-deception. In this journey, some stand firm as acourageous warrior while the others veer off track. Pain and angst are inevitable intheir exertion to define themselves.Critics dwell on the trace of isolation and the revolt of the characters against thesense of isolation in the novel, as few pay notice to the equally central issue, or moreexactly, the issue of the quest for the self. Some even interpret the outcome of thestory as a failure or a dead end. Few dig into the reasons for isolation in the modernworld, the sense of loss and their interrelation with the quest for the self. Started fromthis point, the thesis attempts to explore such issues as how the main characters searchfor the self in an absurd world and how in the process of pursuing the authentic self,the sense of isolation is inevitable and reflected in the pursuit of the self.The backbone of this argument consists of theories of Existentialism, especiallythat of Jean-Paul Sartre. Concerning itself with the subjective truths, individuality andfreedom, Existentialism deals with such issues in one’s existence as the self,self-deception and authentic self, conflicts with the others, angst, value, as well asfreedom and commitment. It offers a way to interpret one’s loneliness in the hunt forthe self, the relationship with the self, the others and the surrounding world.The main body will be divided into three parts, dealing respectively with theissue of self-identification crisis, sense of anxiety and the conflicts betweeninterpersonal relations, as well as the relation between value and responsibility. It is inthis process that the warriors succeed in writing their own stories and assertingthemselves.