The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: Part 3, Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

It is 17 minutes to midnight, and the New York Café is deserted. Biff heads to the bathroom to put some of Alice’s old perfume on his neck, then fetches some flowers for the kitchen and arranges them in the front window, saving one zinnia in his pocket for himself. He steps out into the empty street to admire his work, then takes a little walk down the block. He wonders why he is bothering to keep the café open all night when hardly anyone ever comes by—there is no profit in what he’s doing. At the same time, he knows he’ll never close the café at nights for as long as he runs it.

Biff returns to the register and does some work on a crossword puzzle he’s been filling in all night. When he gets stuck on a clue, he takes the flower from his pocket and plucks the petals from it, playing she loves me/she loves me not. The last petal spells out love—but Biff knows there is no one around for him to love. He hasn’t even been able to give his strange, ineffable fatherly love to Mick.

Biff’s thoughts turn to Singer—he wonders why the man killed himself. Biff was tasked with making all of Singer’s funeral arrangements and was shocked and touched to see how well attended the funeral was, both by friends and acquaintances of Singer whom Biff recognized and by total strangers. Biff is lost in thought when he suddenly glimpses, all in one rush, a vision of “human struggle and of valor.” He has visions of people who labor and people who love—but the very instant he begins to comprehend the questions on his mind, the answers all vanish again.

As Biff calms himself down, he feels “throttle[d]” by terror and suspended between two worlds. He tells himself to pull himself together and behave sensibly. He splashes some water on his face, then goes out to raise the awning. After completing his last task of the night, he returns inside the café to await the dawn.