The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Benedict Mady Copeland, a black doctor, sits alone in his kitchen on Sunday night in the glow of his wood stove. He is reading the writings of Baruch Spinoza, a 17th-century Jewish philosopher, endeavoring to understand the man’s ideas and arguments. While sometimes, late at night, a patient in need of emergency care rings Doctor Copeland’s door, tonight the bell at the front of the house is quiet. Soon, though, Doctor Copeland hears the sound of a harmonica floating down the street—he knows his son, William, is playing it, and that his daughter Portia must be with him.

Portia enters the house alone, chiding her father for reading in the dark. Doctor Copeland asks how Portia’s doing, and whether she, Highboy, and William are getting along all right. It’s clear that while Portia visits her father regularly, Willie and Highboy do not participate in these visits. Portia insists that she, Willie, and Highboy are all doing fine—the three of them live together, and have come up with a system in which each does his or her part to keep all three of them afloat.

Portia asks her father if he’s eaten, and Doctor Copeland says he hasn’t. Portia says she’s brought greens and pork. Doctor Copeland says that while he’s not eating meat, Portia can cook the meat with the collards if she wants to. Portia begins cooking, and Doctor Copeland continues to ask her about her life. He asks if she’s planning on having children, but Portia says the answer depends “entirely upon God.” Doctor Copeland thinks about all the babies he’s delivered throughout town, many of which their parents have named after the doctor himself. Doctor Copeland wishes his patients didn’t have so many children, but his entreaties to them go unheeded. 

Doctor Copeland knows he is meant to “teach his people”—but some days, the work of educating, healing, and bettering his community feels tiring or downright impossible.

Portia breaks the silence by telling her father she doesn’t want to quarrel. Doctor Copeland says they weren’t quarreling, but Portia declares that a quarrel can unfold without words. Portia tries to cut the tension by telling a story about a black businessman who recently came to Portia’s neighborhood claiming to work on behalf of a government pension fund for black Americans. He collected 25 cents a week from the community for many weeks before being exposed as a fraud. Doctor Copeland is upset by the story, but Portia says that even though she, Willie, and Highboy were taken advantage of, they’re able to laugh at what happened now.

Doctor Copeland doesn’t find Portia’s story funny at all. He laments the troubles “the Negro race” encounters of its own accord. Portia tells her father she doesn’t like his use of the word “Negro”—according to Portia, “polite peoples—no matter what shade they is—always say colored.” Portia begins arguing semantics with her father, insisting that she and Willie have “a good deal of white folks’ blood,” while Highboy is “part Indian.”

Doctor Copeland says he doesn’t want to argue semantics—he just wants to speak the truth. Portia tells her father that the real “truth” is that everyone around him—even his own children—is scared of him. She accuses him of trying to talk in a way that obscures what’s in his heart, and of trying to make his children behave just like him. Portia points out that she’s the only one of Doctor Copeland’s four children who comes to visit him anymore. Doctor Copeland begins coughing uncontrollably, and Portia laments having upset him. Doctor Copeland begins crying. Portia apologizes profusely, crying herself.

Portia goes back to fixing dinner. As Doctor Copeland watches his daughter move around the kitchen, he is struck by how much she looks like her mother, Daisy. Doctor Copeland thinks about his other children—Hamilton, Karl Marx, and William—and the high hopes he had for them to grow up into doctors, scientists, and lawyers. He reflects on the way he raised them and the things he tried to teach them, admitting that the austere and overly principled upbringing he foisted upon them has alienated them.

Portia serves dinner, and she and Doctor Copeland eat in silence. Doctor Copeland breaks the silence by asking Portia to tell him about her job. Portia admits that the work at the Kelly house is hard, and that Mrs. Kelly can’t always afford to pay her on time. Doctor Copeland asks why Portia puts up with such treatment. Portia tells him that the Kellys are going through a hard time. She adds that she has a real “fondness” for the Kelly children. Doctor Copeland urges Portia to think of her own livelihood and put herself before the Kelly children, but Portia insists on seeing the family through their troubles.

Portia continues talking about the Kelly house and mentions the only man out of all the boarders who pays on time—a “deaf-and-dumb” white man. Doctor Copeland asks if the man is tall and thin with light eyes, and if he seems like a Northerner “or maybe a Jew.” Portia says that’s the man she’s talking about. Doctor Copeland says he’s seen the man around town. As Portia begins cleaning up, Doctor Copeland thinks about the deaf and mute white man. He remembers an encounter in which the man lit Doctor Copeland’s cigarette for him on a rainy night on a street corner in town. The interaction with the mute man was the first positive one he’s ever had with a white person.

Doctor Copeland speaks up and tells Portia he has a deaf and mute patient of his own—a young boy who went deaf due to twin ear infections. Doctor Copeland admits to Portia that he worries he has failed the boy. He wonders aloud if perhaps the deaf and mute man at the Kelly house might know of an institution Copeland’s patient could attend. Portia assures Doctor Copeland that the kind Mr. Singer would help him out—she volunteers to give him any letter her father would like to write to him.

The sound of a harmonica on the street makes its way inside. Portia says that Willie and Highboy have come to collect her and bids her father goodnight. Doctor Copeland, pointing out that he has never met Highboy and has not seen Willie in three years, urges Portia to invite them in. Portia knows that Willie and her father don’t get along, but reluctantly agrees. She goes out to fetch the two men while Doctor Copeland shakily lights a cigarette.

Portia returns with Willie and Highboy. Doctor Copeland greets them warmly. Highboy is polite and respectful, but Willie is quiet and standoffish. The four of them sit together in the living room in silence. Portia tries to make some polite conversation, but Copeland, in spite of his desire to connect with his son, can think of nothing to say.

At last, Doctor Copeland addresses Willie and asks him, stiltedly and formally, if he remembers any of the things he was taught in his youth. Copeland says that he poured all the knowledge he could into his children, but that it has resulted in nothing. Portia reminds her father that he said he wouldn’t start a quarrel, then stands up and goes to the door. Highboy and Willie follow her. Before she leaves, though, Portia turns and begs the men to settle their quarrel. Doctor Copeland apologizes to Willie, and Willie accepts.

After Highboy, Willie, and Portia leave, Doctor Copeland returns to the dark of the kitchen and sits by the stove. He wishes that he could remove all of his children from his mind. He turns on the light and resumes reading Spinoza. In the back of his mind, he wonders about writing to Singer, and reflects once again on their sole interaction over the cigarette with a kind of “peace” inside of him.