Carson McCullers was one of the pioneers in the sphere of analyzing the inadequate position of African-American people in the USA in the first half of the 20^th century. Being a young woman, she already managed to give a shockingly true picture of discrimination and segregation that took place long after the abolition of slavery on the whole territory of the US. McCullers wrote the work The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter in 1940 – it was the period when the Negro people were in the position of servants in the US, when the two-tier system existed and did not provide equal opportunities for all US citizens; Negros were deprived of all rights and freedoms possible. The democracy was only nominal because of the extreme segregation evident in all layers of society; it was impossible to find wealthy African-American people because they were not given well-paid job and were deprived of the chance to receive proper education. All this made the progressive society start to re-think the role of the black community in the US and resulted in literary works like McCullers’ one.

The story is dedicated to the experience of a deaf musician John Singer who met white people placing the burden of their emotions, remembrances and worries on him, awaiting no feedback thus creating a unilateral relationship that satisfied them. This experience was gained by the main character of the story on the background of the whole discrimination picture in the US with many colorful images representing both black and white people communicating, cooperating and co-existing. Several images worth separate attention are the one of Dr. Copeland and the student whose composition he awarded a prize at the Christmas party, Lancy Davis. Despite the fact Dr. Copeland felt much hesitation about the work of Lancy, he still felt its power and rightness, and awarded the prize anyway. The reason for such actions of Copeland has to be investigated closer to understand why his decision was the following and why he did not know what to do concerning the work of Davis (McCullers 182).

The topic for the composition was “My Ambition: How I Can Better the Position of the Negro Race in Society” (McCullers 182). So, among the twenty-five works submitted for the contest to Dr. Copeland none touched upon the aching issues of the Negro life in the USA – all students spoke only about their dreams and wishes to obtain a good, well-paid job and to be able to live the way they wanted, without being servants. Even recognizing the servant role of Negros in the USA, none of the writers voiced any opinions about how they could change the situation and what should be done for their dreams to come true. For Dr. Copeland who possessed rather radical views on inequality and was more an activist than a thinker such a state of affairs was unsatisfactory; he realized none of the students saw the way out and only assessed the situation as it was, without a critical view on action.

The work of Lancy Davis was different in many aspects even despite the irregularities in structure and writing. The feelings of Lancy disturbed Copeland because the plot of his essay was warlike, aggressive and threatening. Lancy spoke about the necessity to arrange a plot against the white community of the US and to establish the Negro dominance over the country (McCullers 183). Copeland understood that such radical thoughts were dangerous for Lancy and for the whole community as they lacked realism and could eventually cause the military conflict that would never be won by Negros. Notwithstanding the fact that Copeland did not support Lancy in his idea of an armed intervention, he saw at least the first person who not only complained of his miserable position in the society but also took certain action and was ready to take an active part in the change.

Lancy was a young, active Negro who wanted a change and did not want to reconcile with the state of affairs that was a routine for the US: Negros were discriminated and poor people had to be silent under any conditions. The matter was that Copeland saw lack of analytic view on the problem and understood that the action against Negros was thoroughly planned by the US government; Negros were deprived of worthy jobs because they lacked education; they lacked education because the US system of access to worthy education eliminated Negros to prevent the black community to become educated and to realize their real power (McCullers 184). For this reason the vicious circle was impossible to be destroyed, and Copeland looked for people who could realize this in full.