SDSSocial Development Studies3083-38763083-3868Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty. Ltd.10.26689/SDS.v2i2.15250ArticleGender, Space, and Identity: A Feminist Reading of Mick Kelly in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunterhttps://artdesignp.com/journal/SDS/2/2/10.26689/SDS.v2i2.15250HuangXinrui2026222026-04-30This paper offers a feminist interpretation of Mick Kelly in Carson McCullers’ The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, highlighting the interplay between gender, space, and identity. Through close textual analysis and drawing on feminist theorists such as Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and Virginia Woolf. The paper argues that spatial constraints, economic instability, and ideological norms shape Mick’s transformation from an androgynous childhood to a constrained femininity. This article explores how McCullers critiques the performative construction of femininity and the suppression of female individuality while retaining subtle narrative traces of resistance and potential renewal. Mick’s ambiguous ending—neither fully liberated nor fully conquered—reveals the complex tension between social conformity and latent agency, suggesting that even within repressive structures, female subjects may still possess the possibility of self-recovery.

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