The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

In the wake of Bubber and Baby’s accident, the Kelly family—forced to repay Lucile each month—has fallen on hard times. Mick hardly ever has any pocket change anymore, and her older siblings have had to take jobs to help out their parents. Mick is forced to stop taking her music lessons, and she and her siblings eat the boarders’ leftovers for their suppers. All of this, however, occurs in the “outside room”—in Mick’s “inside room,” her wild dreams of playing music and traveling the world are still alive. 

Mick has been writing tunes in her notebook all winter, struggling to transcribe the music based on the way it sounds in her mind. She struggles to do so—but is determined to get the songs in her head out. One of the compositions she’s most proud of is one she’s named “This Thing I Want, I Know Not What.” While Mick works painstakingly each day on transcribing the melody, she daydreams of becoming a world-famous composer in charge of a symphony orchestra.

The other great presence in Mick’s “inside room” is John Singer. Though Mick has allowed thoughts of other people into her inside room before, Singer is the first person who’s been in her head in a long time. The schoolgirl crushes of her youth don’t compare to the strange, ineffable feelings she has for Singer. She has told him more things about herself and her thoughts than she’s ever told another person, and while he rarely talks back to her, she relishes learning small new things about him day after day.

One afternoon, Mick asks Harry Minowitz for some help with her English homework. As they study together, Harry and Mick talk about the evils of fascism and daydream aloud together about fighting Nazis. Soon, Harry has to leave for work. Mick asks him if he likes it at the café, and he says he does. Out of nowhere, Mick says that she hates Biff Brannon. He is always talking to her in a “funny” way, and Mick believes he does so because he spotted her and Bubber stealing chewing gum one time. Harry insists that while Brannon is an odd man, he's a good employer. Mick laments that while boys can usually find good part-time work, girls are forced to choose between staying in school and working full-time. 

Harry tells Mick he has a secret for her. He admits that when he first saw pictures in the newspaper of people in Europe “marching and singing songs and keeping step together,” he admired their sense of camaraderie. Harry says that when he was younger, he often tried to hide or forget the fact that he was Jewish. Harry now hates himself, he says, for the “moral wrong” of initially admiring fascism. All he can think about is finding a way to stop fascism. He admits that he can barely focus on school, so intense are his constant thoughts of killing Hitler—and his fears of being persecuted because of his Judaism. 

As Harry’s lip begins to tremble, Mick finds herself attracted to his “warm boy smell.” Just as Mick is about to give into her feelings, however, she is suddenly repulsed by them. She reaches out and shoves Harry. Harry is stunned for a moment, but soon reaches out and shoves her back. The two wrestle, laughing as they do—when Mick was younger she always used to scrap with the neighborhood boys, and she’s missed it. When Mick pins Harry to the ground by sitting on top of him, however, she notices something change between them. The two exchange a nervous laugh, then Mick lets Harry up. He bids her goodbye and heads home. 

After dinner that night, Mick goes upstairs in hopes of visiting with Singer—but sees that his door is open, and his room is empty and dark. She heads back downstairs and looks at her song notebook, feeling dissatisfied with each of her compositions. She tries to begin composing a symphony but can only focus on how desperately she wants music lessons and a real piano in the house. Mick struggles to transcribe the tune in her head, but before she can get anything down on paper, Etta and Hazel come into the room, get into bed, and shut off the lights.