In this excerpt, Madden examines the parallel positions of Mick Kelly and Doctor Copeland. He describes how each character finds relief in solitude yet desires connection with others. However, the others are also beset by the same personal dilemma of opposing needs, thus everyone remains solitary and misunderstood.

The theme of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter could hardly be more vital and universal: the immemorial, individual dilemma of loneliness, the spiritual isolation of human beings. It is not a realistic novel about the modern South, nor is it, despite certain critics or whatever McCullers' original intention may have been, a political polemic against capitalism and racism. The memorable characters are all exruciatingly real, but they retain a poetic simplicity which raises them to the level of universal significance. I do not mean "spiritual" in either the religious or even the mystical sense. I, and I think...