Dr. Copeland

740 Words3 Pages
The relationship between a father and daughter can be a tumultuous one. In the novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers shows exactly that. Dr. Copeland and his daughter, Portia, are both African Americans living in a small town in the south in the late 1930s. Their relationship is a strange one because of how opposite they seem to be. Dr. Copeland is a hardheaded man with firm beliefs. Portia, on the other hand, is strict with her religious views. Opposing views makes the father and daughter relationship very complicated. Dr. Copeland can also be very unfair to his daughter. Portia, however, tries her best to be kind and this shows a lot of inner strength. Portia shows her strength in many different ways. At a first glance it…show more content…
He believed that his people should not be segregated and should be treated fairly. He also believed that to achieve this his people need to stand up for themselves, not be complacent and strive for bigger and better things in life. He made many personal sacrifices to devote his entire life's work to furthering the education and uplift of the black community. “All of his life he knew that there was a reason for his working. He always knew that he was meant to teach his people. All day he would go with his bag from house to house and on all things he would talk to them” (74). His work was never ending and proving to his people that they should have a “true strong purpose” was a job that would eventually end up going nowhere. What stands out isn't what he's fighting for, but how he's going about it. Copeland is so strongly and stubbornly committed to his beliefs that he can't seem to have a functional relationship with anyone around him. He doesn't talk to people but instead preaches at them, and when he listens to others, he only hears contradictions to his beliefs. This deep feeling of trying to find the “true purpose” became very dark and evil at times. McCullers’s perfectly explains this when writing, “the hopeless suffering of his people made in him a madness and a wild and evil feeling of destruction”
Open Document