The Great Depression Summarized by Marxism in Carson McCullers Novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Marxism, a system of economic and political thought determined by Karl Marx, argues the owners, or capitalists, exploit the workers. This theory suggests that the class struggle has been the main agency of historical change, and supports a socialist order and a classless society. Carson McCullers novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, features Marxism to summarize the period of the Great Depression in an American Society. McCullers includes characters that represent working-class white-men, the generation coming of age, and a black man and woman. These characters represent different social groups in the South in the 1930s but still retain their individuality. The perspectives of the characters also represent their outsider nature and the struggles and injustices that define them. Jake Blount and Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland express their dreams of political and economic reform through Marxist ideas by highlighting two deprived groups: the nation's poor laborers and individuals in racial minority groups.

Both Blount and Copeland believe that a Marxist society would prevent the misuse of a nation's workforce. Jake Blount is a character that represents a man of the working-class in America. Instead of settling in, he wanders across America and takes new jobs when he needs more money. Blount is completely discontented with America's capitalistic society which keeps people oppressed by concealing the truth from them. Blount is characterized as a Proletariat, or those who have nothing to offer but their labor power as they do not own the means of production. One day, he says to a group of mill workers sitting on their porch, "I got the Gospel in me" (McCullers 78). The workers tell him to go to a service, but he insists that he has "the re...

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...ch more understanding and passionate about the subject. Both men have thought-provoking political and economic perspectives, but fail to communicate their thoughts effectively.

Jake Blount and Dr. Copeland are aware of their exploitation and believe that a Marxist society would end the corruption of their nation. Blount is oblivious to the problems unique to black people, but realizes that something is dreadfully wrong with his world while Copeland devotes his entire life to fighting for African-American justice. More importantly, the two men represent the ways in which the ideology of the South has made them who they are and kept them divided and powerless. Marxist views have taken over Blount and Copeland's lives and characterize them as knowledgeable men with grand ideas; however, they do not have the ability to share their dreams for the future.