The musical style of Heart is a lonely hunter Essay

The musical style of Heart is a lonely hunter - Essay Example In this regard McCullers herself characterizes the novel as a fugue in the musical features of the novel recurs in three parts of the novel. McCullers novel is musical in its characteristics in two senses: first the novel possesses a tuneful and harmonious structure; second it deals with the polyphonic characteristics of words, phrases and the greater unit of the structure of the novel (Fuller 57). The phonic tones and of tunes of words not only exists in the concrete form but also in the abstract sense. Evidently the phonic features both in abstract and concrete senses have been fused with its tuneful and harmonious structure, as it is noted in the Big Readers’ Guide†, â€Å"The novel’s rhythmic language is sometimes harmonious — as in the sweet, sad duets between Mick and Singer — and at other times cacophonous, as in Jake and Dr. Copeland’s final argument† (Big Read, 2). The entire structure of the novel appears to be a three part fu gue that closely follows the polyphonic actions with a number of symbolic voices including a central voice. The fugal characters of â€Å"the Heart is a Lonely Hunter† function in a contrastive, but rhythmic, way to demonstrate the dominant relationship between John Singer’s mute heart with the outside world and then necessarily the other characters come with the contrapuntal theme to contribute to the development of the major theme of the novel. Following the structure of a fugue, the novel deals with an extensive theme of man’s struggle against the loneliness of his inner being.