Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Loneliness and Isolation
Communication and Self-Expression
Racism, Inequality, and Injustice
The Individual vs. Society
The American South
Summary
Analysis
All summer, Mick Kelly is full of the feeling that she is on the verge of some kind of great change. She can’t put her finger on what it is, but she is perpetually excited and ready to face each day. Most mornings she takes Ralph and Bubber out on an aimless walk. As the heat of the afternoon descends upon them, Mick finds a shady place for them to sit or brings them to the library or the New York Café to buy candy. On each outing, every day, Mick’s head is full of music—and each night, after supper, she goes out to wander the streets in search of the sounds of her neighbors’ radios.
Mick spends much of her time alone—or effectively alone, caring for her younger brothers. While music comforts and soothes her, it also symbolizes her desire to express herself to the world, and this hope for self-expression is what makes her feel excited and hopeful about the future.
Themes
One night in August, Mick is hurrying out of the house so that she can make it to a neighbor’s lawn in order to surreptitiously listen to a program on their radio. Mick’s father stops her in the living room and asks to talk to her a while. Mick feels sorry for her dad—after an accident last year, he’s been forced to give up his job as a carpenter and start working as a watch repairman. As Mick waits for her father to say something, a silence descends. She realizes he has nothing to say—he just wants her company. As her father slowly starts talking about the mundanities of his days, Mick wishes she could tell him about her long, hot, joyous nights roaming the streets and listening to the sounds of her neighbors’ radios wafting through the air—but she doesn’t know how.
It's not just the major characters in the novel who have a painful, sometimes overwhelming longing to be seen, heard, and understood—everyone in the book suffers with the desire to express themselves and feel recognized by another. Mick herself struggles with these feelings, but fails to realize that her father is going through much the same thing she is, and so both characters remain somewhat isolated even while they’re together.
Themes
Several weeks later, school has started. It is a Saturday afternoon. Mick is giving a prom party at the boarding house later that evening, and she, Bubber, Portia, and Mr. Kelly spend all afternoon cleaning and decorating the place with streamers. Mick has only ever been to a few parties and has never given one herself, but after feeling lonely and out of place during her first few weeks at school, she has decided to bring all her new schoolmates over for a gathering.
Mick’s decision to give a prom party illustrates her desire to broaden her horizons, make new friends, and connect with others. She’s tired of being alone and is ready to try to fit in, even if doing so doesn’t come naturally to her.
Themes
Mick is anxious about the party. She fusses with the pictures on the wall in the hallway, rearranges decorations, and begs Portia to reassure her that the party will go off without a hitch. As the afternoon wanes, Mick takes a long bath and begins painstakingly dressing and primping for the evening ahead. By the time she’s ready, she feels “different from the old Mick Kelly”—she believes that tonight is going to be the best night of her life.
As Mick prepares for the party, she doesn’t feel like herself at all—she’s taken on the same kind of stereotypically feminine identity that she recently mocked her sisters for. Mick, however, knows that in order to fit in socially and find the connection she’s been longing for, she needs to change herself—and she’s willing to do so, hopeful that it will pay off.
Themes
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Later that night, the party is in full swing. All of Mick’s classmates are laughing and mingling—until the moment she passes out the actual prom cards and encourages them to start pairing up. The girls and boys separate and become nervous—it is as if everyone has forgotten how to talk to one another. Soon, the silence and awkwardness break as a few boys start requesting promenades with the girls.
The breakdown in communication among Mick’s party guests shows that everyone struggles—in ways big and small—with both the desire to express themselves to others and the fear of doing just that.
Themes
Amidst all the awkwardness, Mick notices Harry Minowitz, her next-door neighbor and a Jewish boy two years her senior. Harry asks Mick on a promenade and as the two set out for their walk, they begin talking. During a lull in the conversation, Mick begins humming a piece of music. Harry asks her what she’s singing, and she tells him it’s a piece by Mozart. Harry remarks that Mozart is a German name and asks if Mozart is a fascist or a Nazi. Mick replies that Nazis are “new,” while Mozart has been dead a long time. Harry says he hates fascists and longs to kill one. Mick asks why, and Harry asks her to walk around the block again so he can have time to explain. Mick wants to accept the invitation, but as they come up to the house, she sees a commotion on the lawn.
Mick’s burgeoning friendship with her neighbor Harry represents the potential for a new chapter in her life—one which broadens both her social and political worldviews. Just as Mick and Harry begin to really connect over something that matters, however, their new friendship is interrupted, showing in another small way just how hard it can be to foster genuine connections with other people.
Themes
A gang of neighborhood kids has crashed the prom party. There are kids as young as four and as old as thirteen playing on the lawn. Mick orders them all home, but it’s no use—the party is “all messed up.” Even though Mick is angry that kids she didn’t invite have crashed her party, she admits to feeling a kind of excitement at all the fuss. As the kids grow increasingly wild and run through the streets, Mick joins them—but soon trips on her dress, falls, and gets the wind knocked out of her.
The intrusion of the kids on the lawn outside Mick’s house serves as a kind of metaphor, externalizing Mick’s conflicting feelings about growing up and participating in the high school social atmosphere. She longs to be a kid a while longer, but knows that the new trappings of adulthood are going to hold her back from returning to childhood—just like her sophisticated dress trips her up here.
Themes
Mick returns home, embarrassed by her torn dress. She longs to put her shorts back on, but has a feeling that this is the last night she’ll ever wear shorts—she’s getting too big to dress like a tomboy anymore. Mick orders everyone out, changes back into her shorts, and sets off alone into the street.
Even as Mick tries to stay present in her childhood a little while longer, she knows that the clock is ticking—and that her familiar rituals, such as wearing shorts all the time and roaming the neighborhood looking for music to listen to, must soon end.
Themes
Mick walks through the streets aimlessly until she comes to a more upscale neighborhood. She goes into a familiar yard and is pleased to hear that the owners of the nice house have their radio on as usual. Mick sits in the grass, lights a cigarette, and listens. As a Beethoven program comes on, Mick feels the music “boil[ing] inside her.”
This passage cements music as a symbol of Mick’s conflicting desires. She wants badly to be known and to express herself to others, but she has a true fear of opening herself up to the world—and the people—around her. In this scene, her emotional connection with the music is genuine and intense, but she can’t share it with anyone; instead, she literally has to hide in order to even hear the radio.
Themes
As the symphony ends, Mick feels a “terrible hurt” inside of her. She begins punching her legs and scraping her hands with a loose rock. Exhausted, she lies down in the grass. She wishes she could hear the symphony again—if she could just hear it one more time, she believes, she’d be able to memorize it. Mick falls asleep and wakes up in the dewy grass, unsure of what time it is. She hurries home in the dark, noticing that the first whiff of autumn is on the breeze.
