The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Although McCullers divides her chapters to focus on individual characters, her central protagonist is John. Why does McCullers highlight John as the central character? 

How do Bubber and Mick’s coming-of-age stories parallel each other? How are they different? What does McCullers imply about the future of these characters?

What inspires Jake? Why does Jake have such a difficult time managing his passions? What message does McCullers express through Jake’s subplot?

Dr. Copeland is representative of a Black voice and experience that would have been rare for a white woman to understand at the time of McCullers’s writing in 1940. How does McCullers portray Dr. Copeland to express her own beliefs about the oppression of Black people in America? What aspects of Dr. Copeland’s experience might McCullers fail to consider?

All the characters in the novel struggle with loneliness, but they also tend to turn people away from them. Choose two characters and describe how they both seek company while at the same time rejecting offers of companionship.

Why did McCullers pick Georgia, rather than another Southern state, for the novel’s setting? What was different about Georgia during the time the story is set?

The townspeople elevate John to a godlike figure. How does their worship of John relate to McCullers’s broader themes about religion and spirituality?

McCullers is noted for her role in developing the literary style of Southern Gothic. What is Southern Gothic, and how does the novel exemplify this genre?