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
At eight o’clock on Christmas morning, Doctor Copeland sits at his desk studying some papers. Everything is ready for the annual Christmas party he’s been giving since his first year in practice. Portia is sitting with him, and she confesses that she’s worried about Willie. Though she’s been getting regular letters from Willie every week, last week, Willie didn’t write. Doctor Copeland says he is too busy to discuss Portia’s anxieties, and urges her to go to the kitchen and make sure everything is ready.
Though Copeland and Portia seem to be navigating a new, more open kind of relationship, Copeland still has a tendency to isolate himself with his work and dismiss the needs of those closest to him.
Themes
Doctor Copeland is poring over essays entered into a contest by black students from all over town for an award of five dollars. The subject of the essays this year is, “My Ambition: How I Can Better the Position of the Negro Race in Society.” The winner is to be announced at the party today. Doctor Copeland is struggling with whether to award the prize to an essay written by a student named Lancy Davis who wants to form a “Secret Organization of Colored Leaders and Scholars,” then claim land to create a “mighty country” for black people in the entirety of the territory east of the Mississippi and south of the Potomac. Copeland finds the essay childish, but notes that it is the best written of the bunch.
Doctor Copeland traffics in ideas—he loves reading philosophy, pondering the ways in which he can better his community, and trying to communicate with his patients about the injustices of their society. But then, he’s contemptuous of Lancy Davis’s radical idea for a black-only state—a position which reflects a degree of narcissism in Copeland’s character and a contempt for ideas that are not exactly like his own.
Themes
Doctor Copeland recalls making an emergency house call to tend to Lancy Davis a year or so ago after an “unsuccessful attempt at self-emasculation.” In spite of the boy’s troubled history and impossible ideas, Copeland decides definitively to award the prize to Lancy.
Copeland’s recollection of a visit to Lancy to treat him for self-harm shows just how passionate and unpredictable Lancy is—and also hits at Copeland’s pity and empathy for the boy’s frustrations and anger.
Themes
Doctor Copeland goes into the kitchen, where gifts donated by the community to be distributed at the party are in sacks piled all over the floor. Portia remarks upon how generous people have been this year, but Copeland scoffs at the gifts and insists they are “not a hundredth part of what is needed.” As Portia moves the presents from the kitchen to the back yard, she laments that she’s not going to be able to enjoy the party—she’s too worried about Willie.
Though the community has contributed a sea of gifts for the party this year, Copeland is distressed that his community is not contributing their action and enthusiasm for his cause as well. He claims to want everyone to give what they can—but in reality, he wants more than his people are prepared to give.
Themes
Get the entire The Heart is a Lonely Hunter LitChart as a printable PDF.
By 10:30, the house, porch, and yard are full of guests. Children scramble for presents while Doctor Copeland, fighting his feverishness, greets a never-ending stream of people. When John Singer arrives, everybody stares at him—he is the only white person at the party. As the initial overwhelm of the party dies down, Doctor Copeland stands before his guests and addresses them. In a lengthy speech, he states that though it’s Christmas, the story of Jesus Christ has been told to each of them more times than they could possibly count. In light of that, Copeland hopes to talk to his guests about another man whose “mission was for the living”—Karl Marx.
This passage illustrates once again how Copeland scoffs at religion and perhaps believes it to be a tool used to keep black people down. Instead of inspiring them with religion, he wants to inspire them with politics and philosophy—real, actionable ideas which he believes are actually in his community’s best interest.
Themes
Karl Marx’s mission, Copeland explains, was to make all humans equal and to live by the commandment: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” One of Doctor Copeland’s guests interrupts to ask if he’s referring to Mark from the Bible. More guests speak up to ask if Marx was religious, and if he was white. Copeland attempts to explain Marx to his guests, stating that the man saw himself as “a brother to all people.” Copeland goes on to explain the machinery of capitalism, the plight of the worker, and the injustice of the wealth imbalance in America. Though everyone in the room is technically free from slavery, Copeland goes on to say, they are nonetheless “forced to sell [their] strength, [their] time, [and their] souls” just to survive in the cruel world built by white capitalists.
Doctor Copeland desperately wants to help change the landscape of the black community not just in his own town, but across the region and indeed the nation. Copeland knows that his people have been barred from education all their lives—and he wants to be the one to educate them, to galvanize them, and to free them. This scene illustrates how hard it will be for him to do that, since what he wants to teach is quite different from the kinds of teaching his community is used to.
Themes
Copeland says he hopes that “the injustice of need” might bring them all together—but looking around at the faces before him, he worries that his community will never truly understand what he’s saying or act upon the things he's telling them. Copeland wraps his speech up and announces that Lancy Davis has won the essay contest. He remarks that the essays he read, though very different, all contained one sentiment—the desire to escape servanthood. Copeland begins pontificating again, urging his guests to see that all their labor is “wasted” in service of the white, the wealthy, and the more fortunate. As Copeland’s speech intensifies, his guests begin shouting out in support of his sentiments. Copeland is full of love and gratitude.
At the very moment that Copeland seems to believe his speech is failing, his guests actually become deeply inspired and excited by his words. Copeland had begun to fear that he’d never be able to communicate his ideals properly, and that he would be trapped forever in the loneliness of his intellectual and philosophical isolation—but now, his hope is renewed.
Themes
Copeland explains that the Christmas party he’s thrown each year for the last two decades is in service of Marx’s hope that society’s members will one day give, according to their best abilities, to those needier than them. He urges his guests to “walk with […] dignity through the days of [their] humiliation,” and the room explodes in applause. The postman, John Roberts, begins distributing gifts while Portia serves coffee and cake. As Copeland talks with his guests, he is full of joy and pride. They ask him questions about his speech, about Marx, and about the struggle ahead, and he answers them. All he has ever wanted is to “teach and exhort and explain to his people—and to have them understand.”
Copeland believes that his ideas are at last resonating with his community, and that change is really coming. As the novel continues to unfold, however, McCullers will show just how difficult it is to sustain these kinds of revolutionary feelings—and to keep a sense of community and collective action intact in the face of isolation’s allure and society’s oppression.
Themes
After the party ends, the house is in disarray. Portia washes up in the kitchen while Doctor Copeland cleans the rest of the house. As he places something in his filing cabinet, he looks in his own medical file and examines an X-ray of his lungs. He has no idea what his own prognosis is. Copeland is overcome with a feeling of helplessness, misery, and foreboding.
Doctor Copeland is afraid that he will run out of time before he’s able to create the change he wants to see in his community and in the world. The fact he doesn't know his own prognosis reinforces this point and shows just how scared Copeland is to confront that possibility.
Themes
Copeland returns to the kitchen. Portia confesses that even in spite of the joyous party, she can’t stop thinking about Willie—she has an odd feeling that something is wrong. Copeland tells Portia not to worry, and heads outside to make some house calls. As he starts up his car, he wonders how much of his speech today will live on in the hearts, minds, and actions of his people. He is full of hope, concern, and “angry, restless love.”
Copeland is so energized by the party and his guests’ response to his speech that he ignores his daughter’s fears and pleas for connection. He is pursuing communication with those distant from him while ignoring the chance for connection with those closest to him.
Themes
