Notes

McCullers moves in this chapter to Jake Blount. In chapter three, Jake is the man who runs into Doctor Copeland on the stairs outside of SingerÂ’s apartment. ItÂ’s clear that McCullers is building up to a more significant meeting between these two men. They are very much alike in their thinking. They both have ideas at the center of their lives and live their lives with the desire of sharing their ideas with others. They think of themselves as saviors of others, but misunderstood saviors looking for a receptive listener. They think of others as instruments of their ideas. Herman Melville would call this monomania--a sort of insanity that is manifested in the person having one fixed idea--as he did when he described his character Captain Ahab who searched for Moby Dick with the madness of a fixed idea and who never considered the separate desires and feelings of the men under his command. Doctor Copeland and Jake Blount are Ahab figures.

Doctor Copeland looks at Jake on the stairs and diagnoses him as insane. It seems that this might be another thing the two men have in common. They are both subject to rages. They both find it impossible to be with other people in a social manner. Jake crucifies himself during his stint as a born again believer. It seems clear that McCullers is depicting the two men as failed Christ figures.

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