Racism In The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter written by Carson McCullers takes place during the late 1930s in a town in Georgie, a state in the South of the United States. During that time, the relationship between white Americans and African-Americans were regulated by the Jim Crow laws which enforced white supremacy. Through Carson McCullers’ use of place, racial tension, and class differences, she depicts herself as a southern writer and her novel as a piece of southern writing.

Carson McCullers uses place to show the lifestyle of the south. The town in set in the deep south and has the aspects of racism and poverty. McCullers left the town unnamed because it represents the average southern town before Civil Rights. If we dive deeper and analyze the Sunny Dixie Show, we can see racism. The Sunny Dixie show is a fair attended by both black and white people. With the gathering of black and white people in one place in the south in this era, it was not uncommon to see racism. “He saw a white girls fighting with a colored girl by the ticket booth” (McCullers 281). Jake Blount was a mechanic at the Sunny Dixie show and

Furthermore, through her use of racial tension between the white and blacks, she accurately depicts the understanding gap between blacks and whites during that time in the deep south. Finally, through her use of class differences between an educated and influence black man and the black and white community shows the effects of the Jim Crow laws and how the rest of society follows them, while Dr. Copeland wants to challenge them. Overall, with the aspects of place, racial tension, and class differences, the novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter can be characterized as a southern novel. Richard