An Analysis Of The Narrative Discourse Of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers is one of the representative figures of the twentieth century American Southern literature. She achieved fame because of her work The Heart is a Lonely Hunter when she was 23 years old. Her masterpieces are The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Member of the Wedding and so on. The descriptions of the lonely people and the theme of alienation run through all McCullers’ works and engrave all walks of her personal life. The background of the novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter places at the end of the 1930s in the southern industrial town and the five protagonists are the mute Singer, the little girl Mick, the owner of the cafe shop Biff, the poor worker Jack and the black Doctor Copeland. The novel unfolds with the five characters’stories and stages vivid scenes related to human life.Narratology is a new theory under the impetus of the structuralism in the 1960s and represents a new direction of the development of contemporary literary theory with a great potential. Narratology is a subject that researches the essence, form and function of the narration and the basic scope is the narrative literary works. This thesis tries to analyze the narrative discourse of the novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter based on Gerard Genette’s narrative theory and to explore the artistic effects of the narrative discourse of McCullers’work and the theme of loneliness in the novel.This thesis consists of three parts, including an introduction, the main body and a conclusion.The first part is the introduction. Firstly this part introduces the literary achievements of McCullers and the main plots of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Then it summarizes the domestic and foreign researches on McCullers and the novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Finally, it generalizes the development of narratology and Genette’s main narrative theory and it puts forward the research direction, the research purpose and significance of this thesis.The second part is the main body which analyzes The Heart is a Lonely Hunter from three aspects.The first chapter analyzes the different narrators in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and blended functions of the narrator. The narrator is the speaker of the story and narrative discourse in the level of the text with an important significance. The omniscient heterodiegetic narrator narrates the story calmly and objectively and let the reader observe the background of the novel and the situations of the different protagonists well. Five protagonists as the different narrators make their own voices and show the changeable perspectives and narrative tension. According to Genette’s narratology, this chapter also analyzes the functions of the narrator in the novel and let the reader feel the unique art of the narrative discourse of the novel.The second chapter analyzes the variable styles of the narrative discourse from three aspects:narrated discourse, indirect narrated discourse and dramatic narrated discourse and shows the charm of the characters’discourse. Meanwhile, dramatic narrated discourse can be divided into dramatic dialogue, interior monologue and stream of consciousness. Through the detailed analysis of the narrative discourse of the characters, it is shown that Singer’s discourses of silent interior monologues serve as the bridge of the other characters communicating with him; Mick’s narrative discourses penetrate the unique musical elements while Black Doctor Copeland’s discourses are always appealing for racial equality; Jack’s discourses represent the new power of the working class; Biff’s discourses are not many but he always appears as a calm observer to view the different characters’living conditions. Different kinds of narrative discourses depict different characters’inner situations deeply and with the help of the discourses the readers are able to consider the reasons under the narrative discourse.The third chapter analyzes the unique artistic effects of the narrative discourse in the novel. The narrative discourse shows the changeable rhythmicity and symbolism in many aspects. The narrative discourses in the novel embody the characters’inner sense of loneliness and the invalid communication mode between the characters. At the same time, Mick, Doctor Copeland, Jack, Biff tell their inner confusions to the mute Singer respectively but there is no communication among them. The narrative discourses also manifest the lonely picture of the American southern town and the deep reasons under the lonely narrative discourses are a series of social problems, such as the wars, the economic crisis, the process of rapid industrialization, race and gender and so on which all cause people chaos and deep loneliness in their inner worlds which help the readers to think about the theme of the novel better.The last part is the conclusion. Through the analysis of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter from the perspective of narrative discourse, this thesis aims to show McCullers’ unique artistic effects of narrative discourses and to understand the main characters’ inner confusions and spiritual loneliness of different levels. This thesis is helpful for the understanding of the theme of the novel. Facing the spiritual loneliness, it helps the readers to think about the way to break through the situation with hope and it provokes the considerations about human spiritual level in the modern society.