Adam Silbert

Adam Silbert January 13, 2003

Ms. Gokturk Composition 4

Heart is a Lonely Hunter Task III Essay

The process of growing up also means a growing apart. The unique closeness between a father and daughter can subtly erode over the years, to be replaced by a sudden awareness of a new, mature relationship and with it, a bittersweet sadness of what has been lost. This subject of how a girlís journey to womanhood is often accompanied by a sense of sorrow is explored in both Debra Adamís short story, ìNo More Lollipopsî and by way of the character, Mick Kelly in Carson McCullersí The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

Debra Adams experiences a profound sense of melancholy when she recalls how her father would carry her on his shoulders as a child. Her account of this regular routine is part of a larger pattern of youthful interactions that fondly punctuate her memory. Trips to Jack-in-the-Box, hugs, kisses and the feeling pride she felt as her father would introduce her to his friends and colleagues all stop as she gets older. Adams understands that the closeness she enjoyed with her father as a child would have to cease but that does not make it any less difficult for her to accept. Even though she comes to realize that the relationship she once had with her father is gone, Ms. Adams still holds him in high regard. She knows that she, ìwill always be his little girl,î but she now faces maturity with uncertainty, wondering how she can become the person she wants to be without her fatherís omnipresence in her life. In Adamsí interpretation of growing up, she knows that her fatherís pulling back on many of the routines and private rituals that were such a part of their childhood was properly done to push her into adulthood. The absence of the hugs and kisses does not mean he loves her any less, it just means that she will have to become more self reliant and accept her role as a young woman, even though it will be lonely at times.

On the other hand, Mick Kelly is old beyond her years. She has had to grow up fast in her life situation. Her family obligations and economic situation have left her little time to be a child. As a result, she has had little time to focus on traditional family roles and her father was certainly not the nurturing type. In the passage we read, we learn that before his injury, her father was up early and home late, never seeming to interact with her. Now he is unemployed and although at home, he is isolated from the family, perhaps due to shame at being unable to work as a painter and carpenter. As a result, her interactions with her father have been infrequent at best. It is during one summer evening that she experiences a sudden realization of the distance between them. She would always respond to his calls to her, seeking out the few moments that they would share. However that evening she confesses to actually recognizing him in a different light than ever before. She sees him as an old and lonely man. Although this transformation certainly did not happen overnight, it is only at that moment that she understands it, ìwith her brain.î She feels sympathy towards him, for all he has been through, but she cannot confide in him. Somewhere in the years she has outgrown whatever closeness there might have been. She stays near him, watching him cry, but she knows that the effort her father makes to reach out for her is based on his own fear to being alone, even though he is surrounded by his children. McCullers illustrates how Mick sees her father as becoming figuratively smaller in her life by describing him initially as being one of the biggest and tallest men in the town. However, as Mick later describes him, his eyes are too big for his face and his bald head, ìgave him a naked look.î

In both these literary works, fathers are described through the eyes of their growing daughters. In Adamsí short story, there is a clear sense that she misses the intimacy and joy of their childhood relationship. In McCullersí book, Mick feels little but pity for the shell of the man that is her father. While Adamsí expresses uncertainty about growing up, Mick Kelly does not. She is already an adult. In ìNo More Lollipops,î the author writes warmly of her moments with her father. Carson McCullers describes Mickís moment of understanding as being on a late August night when Mick is late for an appointment. We can almost feel Mickís initial impatience with her fatherís clumsy efforts to reach out to her. The book and short story describe a similar event but the characters have extremely different outlooks and reactions to their individual moments of realized maturity.