More Talk About the Big Read

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: Reader’s Guide Question 2.
Isolation and loneliness are key themes in the novel. How are they different? What are some of the ways the characters seek to alleviate their feelings of isolation and loneliness?
The terms isolation and loneliness are interchangeable in that a person can feel loneliness and therefore isolate themselves from others, or one person can actually be isolated from others and feel loneliness. I don’t believe that any of the characters are isolated in the sense that they are truly alone, but are in varying degrees separated by location and physical or psychological characteristics.
John Singer is a deaf man, who, until he is separated from his friend Antonapoulos is neither lonely nor isolated. Once separated, the two most obvious reasons he becomes isolated are because he has lost is only friend and becomes the only deaf man in town. His isolation is actually quantifiable and as a result he is lonely. He alleviates his feeling of loneliness by filling his days with work and allows himself to be used as a confidant, which he does poorly, admitting to only understanding some of what is said to him and allowing the other characters to shape how he fits into their worlds. He alleviates his isolation by thinking about his friend, and preparing for his visits to him. When he leaves town to visit his friend he does not inform his new found acquaintances about where he has gone, causing there desperation to be exposed.
The other four characters: Mick Kelly, Jake Blount: Benedict Mady Copeland, and Biff Brannon are people who feel lonely and have isolated themselves for various reasons. Mick because of her awkwardness amongst teens her own age, Jake Blount, an opinionated loud mouth drunk living in fear that someone might agree with him, Copeland, a holier than though doctor who thinks his way is the only right path, and Biff, a local philanthropist widower with tendencies to hoard have all attached themselves to John Singer in an attempt to alleviate their feelings of loneliness and at least feel superior to the deaf man.
The irony is that John Singer’s confidant, Antonapoulos, understands even less of what Singer tells him than Singer’s cohorts back in town share with him. In this relationship, Singer is superior.

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-Larry G.