The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Biff Brannon owns and runs the New York Café. His wife, Alice, with whom he is distant, is worried about a drunk man who has spent the entire week at the café-bar: Jake Blount is new in town and has been drunk at Brannon’s café for most of the time he’s been there. Though he runs a bar, “Never had he [Biff Brannon] seen a fellow drink so much, stay drunk so long” (7). Jake hasn’t paid his bill at the café yet, but Biff is intrigued by him.

Mick, a 12-year-old girl whose family runs a boarding house, comes into the café for cigarettes. She reports that Jake has been living in the boarding house for three months. Jake makes an incomprehensible comment about the price of cigarettes, and comments that he’s seen John so often at the bar that now John is in his dreams. Jake drunkenly sits with John and talks at him, not realizing that John doesn’t speak back. John seems delighted to have company and tries to follow Jake’s thoughts by reading his lips. Biff feels pity for John and offers him a drink on the house.

Jake brings a Black man into the bar. Though the man is a doctor, he quickly leaves, and another patron reminds Jake that he can’t bring a Black man into a white bar. Jake gets angry and shouts that he is a mixture of different races and ethnicities. He declares that John is the only one who understands what he’s talking about. Biff notes Jake’s anger but dozes off after Jake leaves. Willie, a Black man who works in the kitchen, wakes Biff to tell him Jake is in a fight outside. The police bring Jake into the café, believing that he’s staying with Biff. John writes Biff a note offering to take Jake to the boarding house, where Jake can stay with John in his room.

Biff prepares himself for bed as his wife wakes up and practices her lessons for the Sunday school class she teaches. Biff wonders about Jake’s clearly complicated past and Jake’s affinity for John.

Mick helps look after her two younger brothers, Bubber and baby Ralph; she takes them around in a wagon and stops at a house under construction. There, she climbs the dangerously tall ladder to reach the roof: Mick is proud that she can reach a height most kids are too scared to reach. She admires the town and bright sky while smoking a victorious cigarette. Mick, alone with her thoughts, thinks of music. Though she doesn’t know how to play an instrument, she’s fascinated by music. She hears Ralph crying and descends the ladder. On her way back home, she tells her brothers about a weird recurring dream she has in which she’s drowning in a sea of people. She confesses that the thing she wants most in the world is a piano so she can learn to play music.

Back at the boarding house, Mick’s mother is busy getting food ready for the boarders. Mick goes to her room, which she shares with her older sisters Hazel and Etta. Mick is annoyed with her sisters, who only care about their looks while she is a “tomboy.” Mick goes to her older brother Bill’s room, but he is distracted by books and barely pays Mick any attention. Bill has Mick’s artwork hung up around his room: Most of her drawings are bizarre images of violence, such as people dying in a shipwreck or an airplane crashing. Mick takes out the ukulele she’s been trying to make into a violin. Annoyed with her, Bill snaps that he knew from the beginning that she wouldn’t be able to make it into a violin. Mick feels angry and ashamed.

Mick eats with Bubber and Portia, a Black woman, in the kitchen, and Portia tells them the story of her grandfather’s farm. Portia’s father is a doctor in town and is a good father but strict about books and learning. Portia encourages Mick to attend church, otherwise Mick will wander unhappily for the rest of her life.

Jake wakes up in an unfamiliar room hung over and thirsty. He sees John in the room, and Jake’s memory comes back to him. John hands Jake a card that says: “I am a deaf-mute, but I read the lips and understand what is said to me. Please do not shout” (23). John offers Jake his room to stay in, but Jake refuses. Privately, Jake refers to John as a “dummy.”

Jake is looking for work. He sees an ad for a job as a mechanic and stops by the café to ask about the town. Biff characterizes the town as ordinary, with some rich people and many impoverished people who work at the mills and factories. The mechanic job is for a small amusement ride. Jake walks to the address in the job advertisement and notes the dingy and impoverished-looking neighborhood. Jake meets Patterson, who’s looking for someone to manage his merry-go-round. After Jake accepts the job, he takes a walk around the town. He feels lonely so he strikes up a conversation with a couple of men lounging around. He asks them if there have been any strikes in the town. The men confirm there have been strikes, and the workers were cleared out. That’s how these men moved in; the companies brought them from out of town to replace the strikers. This enrages Jake because he has strong opinions about the moral ineptitude of large companies that control people’s livelihoods.

Jake returns to John’s room with a gift of grapes. He rants about corruption and feels that John truly understands him. He decides to take up John’s offer to stay with him.

In the town’s Black neighborhood, Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland settles down for the evening with a book by Spinoza. He opens the door for his daughter, Portia, who is with her brother Willie and her husband, Highboy. Portia lives with Highboy and Willie but is visiting her father for dinner. Portia gets annoyed when her father asks her if she’s planning on having children. Dr. Copeland has many opinions about people having too many babies, and he reads new theories on eugenics and birth control. Dr. Copeland is disappointed in his people; he feels that they are too trusting in institutions like government and religion. He believes it is his purpose to educate them. When Portia tells him the story of a grifter passing through town who tricked many Black people into paying for nonexistent government pensions, the story confirms Dr. Copeland’s opinions. Portia defends the Black community and chides her father for using the term “Negro,” which she finds offensive. Portia points out that most people, including his own son, are scared of him. Portia criticizes Dr. Copeland’s need to change people into what he believes they should be and that though he may be smarter than Highland or Willie, Willie and Highland are better people than him. This brings Dr. Copeland to tears and makes Portia feel bad.

Dr. Copeland has two other children besides Portia and Willie, but he’s out of touch with them. Growing up, his children were oppressed by his discipline and strict teachings. Their mother, by contrast, was fun and taught them about religion.

Portia changes the subject. She tells her father about her job working for Mick’s family. Sometimes, they don’t pay her as much as they should, but Portia believes they are good, hard-working people. She believes Mick has potential, but she’s not sure for what. She brings up John, whom Dr. Copeland knows.

Dr. Copeland tries to stay away from white people, who have only ever tried to belittle and infantilize him: Dr. Copeland’s goal is always to maintain his dignity. He met John on a rainy night when John materialized to help Dr. Copeland light his cigarette. The gesture was unexpected and surprising coming from a white man. Now, Dr. Copeland has a patient, a child who is deaf. Dr. Copeland blames himself for the child’s deafness because of his difficult birth. Dr. Copeland wants to reach out to John to ask if he knows of any institutions the child can attend. Portia encourages her father to talk to John, who is kind and tips her for doing his laundry.

When Highboy and Willie arrive to pick up Portia, Dr. Copeland asks her to invite them in. The younger men are nervous around Dr. Copeland, who immediately tells Willie what a disappointment he’s been. Portia stops her father from going too far and insists that they all make up. Dr. Copeland apologizes and the others leave.

Alone again, Dr. Copeland turns to his books to distract himself from the conflicts with his children.

John is delighted to have many more guests as the summer continues: Mick enjoys spending time with him because she finds him a kind and good listener, Dr. Copeland visits John to talk about his patient who is deaf, and Jack and Biff both visit John as well.

John leaves town briefly to visit Spiros at the psychiatric hospital. Spiros is the same—he still likes to eat and drink—but he is uninterested in John’s stories. Still, John tries to entertain his friend. He obtains permission to take him out of the psychiatric hospital for a few hours, but when they are due to return, Spiros refuses and must be physically forced to go back. When John returns to the boarding house, everyone asks him why he didn’t say that he would be leaving.