SOURCE: Rich, Nancy B. “The ‘Ironic Parable of Fascism’ in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” Southern Literary Journal 9, no. 2 (spring 1977): 108-23.

In the following essay, Rich investigates the role of politics in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and perceives the novel as a political parable.

Although Carson McCullers referred to her novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, as “an ironic parable of Fascism,” critics have not taken her statement seriously,¹ either because it seems too general a reference to the social and economic conditions of the novel or because it appears too restrictive in terms of the theme of isolation.² Considerable evidence, however, suggests the probability that politics was a motivating factor in the genesis of the novel and that the parable is a key not only to broader implications in the theme but also to the tight construction McCullers claimed and reviewers have so...