A discussion of the major themes of the stories in "Winesburg Ohio", by Sherwood Anderson, and how they relate to the characters in the text and to the town itself.
Abstract This paper reviews the book, "Winesburg Ohio", a well-crafted work of art by the author, Sherwood Anderson, about the alternately complex, lonely, joyful, and strange lives of the inhabitants of the small town of Winesburg, Ohio. It analyzes the various motifs of Winesburg, Ohio under different sectional headings in order to view how characters function in the set of stories remarkably woven by the author. It covers the themes of loneliness, inhibition, lack of communication, and isolation, and also tries to show the connection of George Willard to these themes and the town.
From the Paper "The first chapter is called "Hands" , and involves the sad story of Wing Biddlebaum. Because Biddlebaum is accused of having molested students that he taught, his hands embody the shame that he carries. Fearing that the presence of his hands will be misinterpreted, Biddlebaum hides his expressive hands. Because a person's physical hands are used to communicate feeling, "Hands" is a tale about one of the sources of isolation, the inability to communicate feelings. "Paper Pills" is the second chapter of the novel and deals with another cause of isolation, the inability to communicate thought. Because Doctor Reefy is afraid of communicating directly to another person, he writes his thoughts on little pieces of paper to prevent his thoughts from being misinterpreted."
Abstract This paper examines and reviews the imagery in Sherwood Anderson's short story "Hands," which offers a glimpse of small town life in America's Midwest. The writer of this also paper discusses and details the plot of the novel and the main character Wing Biddlebaum, who's described by Anderson as a poor little man, beaten, pounded and frightened by the world.
From the Paper "One can tell from the imagery beginning with the decaying porch, that there was not much use fixing the place up. It was home, for whatever it looked like, to this nervous little bald man. Winesburg surely had, as most small Midwestern towns did, a sort of pecking order. There were the affluent, with fertile fields, or grain and feed stores, bankers and other businessmen who foreclosed loans and sold over-priced goods to their regular customers, while winning them over with the smiles."
