Surrender Becomes Power By Kellie Storm
In Part I. of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, McCullerscharacterizes Mick Kelly in a few scenes which foreshadow her sexual trauma.One of Mick's first gestures in the novel is the famous inscription ofgraffiti on the inner walls of a house under construction. In addition to herlist on one wall of notable men--Mozart, Edison, Dick Tracy, and Mussolini,she writes on an opposite wall "a very bad word--PUSSY" and herinitials, M.K. (37). At this point, she has ambitious fantasies about beingan artist. She longs for the power to inscribe her initials, her identity, onhandkerchiefs, underwear, cars, stage curtains, and eventually, her musicalcompositions. The symbolism of rooms at the novel's outset becomesimportant again when Mick begins to write songs. As a defense against hernoisy, crowded household, she imagines herself composing in an "insideroom," the spacious dimensions of her imagination. Yet Mick Kelly,unlike her creator, who read…