The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: Part 2, Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

That night, Jake and Singer go together to Doctor Copeland’s house. Portia greets them at the door and takes their hats for them, explaining that her father is very ill. There are several people in the warm living room, including a “boy without legs” lying on a cot in the corner. Portia asks the men to wait a minute while she goes to check with her father and see if he’s able to receive visitors—but Jake insists he’s come to talk with Willie.

Portia introduces Willie to Jake, insisting to her brother that Jake is a friend of Singer who can be trusted. The other men in the room, she explains to Jake, are Buddy, her brother, and two friends of Doctor Copeland’s: Marshall Nicolls and John Roberts. Jake asks Willie to tell him about his troubles. Willie explains that since he’s returned home, he’s experiencing phantom pain in his missing feet. He believes the pain stems from the fact that after his feet were cut off, they weren’t given back to him—he has no idea where they were taken or what was done with them.

Jake asks Willie to give him the names and addresses of the other young men with whom he was locked up—as well as the guards at the penitentiary who tortured them. Willie says he's worried about Jake, a white man, getting him into trouble. Jake insists that Willie is already in a heap of trouble. He asks Willie what happened to the guards, and Willie says he heard they were fired. Jake asks what became of Willie’s other “friends”—but Willie says he wasn’t ever “friends” with the other boys. Portia explains that it’s too painful for Willie to talk about the other two young men, or even think about seeing them again.

Jake, overwhelmed with the trauma and injustice before him, becomes dazed. He wishes he could leave, but when he looks around for Singer, he realizes his friend has gone back to see Doctor Copeland. Highboy and Lancy come in through the back door bearing gifts of wine and peach puffs. Lancy says he’s come to check on Doctor Copeland and send his regards. Portia leaves the room to tell her father that Lancy is here—she says he has a book to give the young man.

After Portia leaves the room, Marshall turns to Jake and tells him that he believes the best course of action is to lay low, stay quiet, and try to “do [their] part toward extending amicable relationships.” Jake says he doesn’t understand what Marshall is saying. Willie plays a sad, dark song on his harp. Jake feels flustered and again wants to leave—but when the others begin passing around the wine and snacks Highboy and Lancy have brought, he becomes more comfortable.

Marshall brings the conversation back to what he had begun to explain to Jake a moment ago. He tells Jake that it is important for the “members of the colored race” to focus on uplifting their community rather than doing anything to “impair” the “amicable relationships” with their white neighbors. Jake, again uncomfortable, asks where Singer is. Portia explains that Singer left some time ago. Jake turns to Willie and makes him a proposition. He offers to take Willie, Buster, and the other boy with whom they were imprisoned around town in a wagon and tell their story—then explain why such horrors befell them to the whole of the community. Jake is still in a confused haze and loses track of his words. Embarrassed, he leaves the room and walks down the hall—soon, he finds himself standing on the threshold of Doctor Copeland’s room.

Doctor Copeland, seeing Jake standing in the door, orders him to get out of his house. Jake asks why the doctor wants him out, and Copeland replies that Jake is “a white man and a stranger.” Jake does not leave, however—instead, he crosses the room and sits in a chair near Copeland’s sickbed.

Over the next several hours, the two men have “a long, exhausting dialogue.” When it is past midnight, Jake suggests they have one final word about the “strangled” and “wasted South.” Jake takes a long drink from a bottle of liquor and starts a lengthy, ranting speech. He declares the 13 states that comprise the American South “the most uncivilized area on the face of [the] globe.” Jake rails against the billion-dollar corporations that exploit the labor of their workers, the disease, and the starvation which plague the lives of poor Southerners. Copeland tries to interject to discuss the problems black people face, but Jake continues railing against capitalism.

Copeland tries to tell Jake he’s “getting off on a tangent” and “giving no attention” to the problems black people face, but Jake is on a roll—he ignores Copeland once again and continues railing against unfair wages. Doctor Copeland speaks up once again, agreeing that as far as black people are concerned, the South has always been fascist. He draws a connection between the plight of the Jews of Europe and the plight of black Americans. Copeland states that Singer is a Jew, and because of this, understands him when no other white man does. Jake is shocked and insists Singer is “pure Anglo-Saxon,” but Copeland is certain.

As dawn begins to break, Doctor Copeland tells Jake that he hopes they have not spent all night up talking “to no purpose.” They have not yet discussed the most important thing of all—what must be done to correct the injustices they’ve discussed. Jake says that they need to expose people to the truth; only then will they rise up against oppression. Jake proposes starting a chain letter and trying to reach as many people as possible. Copeland, however, says that talk will get nothing done. What is needed, he believes, is action—he has learned this the hard way after realizing his failed belief in “the tongue instead of the fist.”

Jake doesn’t believe that Copeland’s ideas about actions and demonstrations will be effective. Copeland says he wants to try to get Jake to see eye-to-eye with him—but as Jake quiets down, Copeland seems too exhausted to quarrel any longer. He warns Jake, after several moments of silence, not to “stand alone.” He then asks Jake if he believes in the injustice and inequality facing black America. Jake says he does. Doctor Copeland reveals that he has a plan to lead over a thousand of his people all the way to Washington. He offers Jake the chance to join the cause—but warns him that if he enters it, it must “be all” to him. He asks Jake, once and for all, for a yes or a no.

After thinking, Jake declares that Doctor Copeland’s plan is not the right approach—he predicts a group of a thousand black people would be arrested before they made it out of town. Doctor Copeland is seized by a coughing fit and accuses Jake of mocking his plan. The men argue back and forth until Jake says he believes the only way to secure rights for black people across the South—and the entire country—is to dismantle capitalism first. The two men shout and scream at one another, hurling insults back and forth. At last, Jake calls Copeland a “short-sighted bigot,” and Copeland calls Jake a “white fiend” before collapsing against his pillow, foamy blood pooling at the corner of his mouth. Jake sobs and runs from the room.