Notes

Jake Blount and Doctor Copeland come together here in the last fourth of the novel. They come close to agreement several times, but each time they do, they quickly fall apart in agonized disagreement. McCullers builds the theme of the novelÂ’s resolution here. It is love. At one moment, when Doctor Copeland pushes Jake to accept the injustice done to African-Americans, Jake feels a rush of love that brings tears to his eyes. The idea of reconciliation, then, is McCullersÂ’ answer to the antagonisms of the south. Yet, at the end of the chapter, the two men have fallen apart again and Jake has pronounced that the solution to the problem of African-Americans is the castration of all black men and Doctor Copeland has called Jake a white fiend.

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