![]() ![]() ![]() As McCullers depicts the forces of racism, inequality, and injustice at play in the unnamed mill town at the center of the novel, she uses that town as an analogue for the ways in which these issues reverberate through society more largely, ultimately arguing that until human society acknowledges and attempts to amend the plight of its most vulnerable, downtrodden members, it is-and always will be-a failure. Early reviews of the book, such as one in the August 1940 issue of The New Republic, lauded McCullers for her ability to “embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness”-and indeed, that blend of “apprehension and tenderness” is what defines McCullers’s outlook on the many injustices that define the community at the center of the novel. Set in the Deep South in the late 1930s, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter wrestles with the major social, political, and economic divisions that defined not only the region, but the world more largely during those years. ![]()
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