Damascus University Journal, Vol.٢٠, No. (١+٢), ٢٠٠٤
Kutrieh
Ahmad Ramez
Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in
the Village
Dr. Ahmad Ramez Kutrieh*
Abstract
Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio presents images of village life at a time
of transition from pre-motor times of harmonious living to a new time
where the individual, diminished, cannot affirm his identity; in fact the
individual has become abnormal, a grotesque. A close examination of the
work reveals Anderson’s concern to highlight the danger of having
individuals steer away from the common practices and values of their
fellow villagers. The extreme forms of individualism prevalent in
Winesburg’s characters bring them unhappiness and make them unable to
interact well or communicate satisfactorily with others.
*
Department of English, College of Arts, King Saud University
٣٧
Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village
In Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson reflects on his youthful
experiences in a small society that is undergoing change. He writes about
the village at a pre-motor time and portrays this society lyrically infusing
his work with warm feelings towards the village and its people. A major
feature of Winesburg is its small size. Its population forms a social group
where individuals are aware of their position and the relationship that
exists between the individual and the social group. Anderson portrays
social settings that were changing in the rural Midwestern villages of the
late ١٩th century /early twentieth century. However, the major concern
of the Winesburg stories lies in the characters. Interestingly, the basic
issue discussed in the book, individualism, has drawn some critical
attention since it is one of the most highly prized qualities in American
culture. I believe that Anderson portrays individuals suffering from an
extreme emphasis on individualism that has made them unhappy
grotesques. The weight put on individualism brings them unhappiness.
They lack fulfillment, feel separate, lonely, and unable to communicate.
Although the book talks about the village before WWI, it was
written during the devastation of the war that changed the way the
citizens of the western world thought of themselves and their place in the
universe. If the possibility for an individual to make a mark on the world
existed and heroism and acts of valor were thought to be possible before
the war, the general breakdown of these notions by the war left many
thinking of their landscape as a “wasteland.” It is through the prism or
retrospect that Winesburg shows that the people of the village, the solid
bedrock of American culture, have been losing the pastoral tranquility
afforded by common values and shared outlooks on life. The emphasis
on the infectious and ebullient individualism of Emerson, Thoreau, and
Whitman appear to have twisted and thwarted Man’s ability to be
effective fulfilled individuals capable of meaningful thought and action.
Winesburg, Ohio was warmly received when it appeared in ١٩١٩
and its writer was hailed as a fresh new voice, and a rebel. The book was
seen as showing Anderson to belong to the group of writers who
criticized life in the villages of the Midwest (Blankenship ٦٥٦). The
book received a good share of attention and analysis that according to
Walter Rideout has fluctuated from one decade to another in the twentieth
century. Anderson was first looked at as a rebel to be praised, then a
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confused, failing and intellectually deficient talent, and finally
reevaluated in the sixties and seventies as a sort of poetic voice. This
reevaluation continued into the eighties and nineties. Towards the end of
the century, Winesburg was listed number twenty-four among the best
books of the century (D. Anderson, “Visual Images” ٦١).
The early reviewers of Winesburg pointed out Anderson's concern
with the village. The reviewer in The New Republic, expressed his
admiration of one story and struck a note to be repeated many times. He
said that the theme of Anderson is "the loneliness of human life, the
baffled search of every personality for meanings and purposes deeper
than anything that may be said or done . . ."(٣٦). For instance,
immediately after Anderson's death in ١٩٤١, Burgess Meredith wrote that
Anderson was quite aware of small town life as he saw its limitations, its
ugliness and pettiness, yet he saw its beauty, its courage in its continuing
“struggle for a freer life"(١٣٩). Waldo Frank summed up the attitude of
many scholars towards Winesburg by suggesting that "It has become a
critical commonplace that Winesburg faithfully portrays the Midwest
village of two thousand souls during the post civil-war pre-motor
age"(٤٤).
In the fifties, a different attitude was struck by Russell Blankenship
who declared Anderson as belonging to the revolt camp "against the
standardization of his native habitat . . ."(٦٧٠).٢ Similarly, Irving Howe
suggested: "The book conveys a vision of American life as a depressed
landscape cluttered with dead stumps, twisted oddities, grotesque and
pitiful wrecks"(١٠٦). He complained about the absence of round
characters in the book which makes it possible to read it "as a fable of
American estrangement"(١٠٨).٣
The more recent assessments are more sympathetic. Since the
middle seventies, a society of interested scholars began publishing a
periodical dedicated to Anderson. Many studies of Anderson have also
appeared in the publications of the Society of MidAmerican Literature.
An example of sympathetic studies is that of Fludernik who finds through
a discussion of the metaphors of Winesburg, that the message of the book
is an "equation of art with love and its celebration of human love over
and above the external aspects of life . . ."(١١٨).
٣٩
Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village
Anderson did not label Winesburg a novel. The book has no one
central protagonist. Yet, it has always been treated as a unified work that
has thematic unity, sustained tone, and one narrative consciousness
informing the reader about the secrets of the inhabitants of the town. The
different chapters have titles and they deal with different characters.
They can be seen as separate short stories, and are often published
separately as autonomous units. However, the intertwining stories of
these characters, in terms of theme and treatment and in the appearance of
many of the characters in more than one story, argues for the treatment of
the book as a unified work. The intertextuality of the stories is evident
throughout. Some of the stories can be sequenced differently and yet the
overall effect would remain the same. "Departure," is an exception since
it gives the narrative its closure and thus cannot be sequenced differently
without changing the impact of the work. However, whether "Drink" or
"Adventure" come before or after "Death" does not greatly affect the
overall impact of each. The effect these stories have on the reader is
achieved cumulatively and not incrementally. Whether reading the
chapters separately or as a group the readers would receive essentially the
same impact. Yet, of this collection, no story is so dependent on the
others that it would be unintelligible if read alone. One can, however, ask
about the reason Anderson put his narrative in this form.
In most chapters, different moments in the lives of the characters
happen simultaneously and segmenting these moments into different
chapters highlights these moments. In fact, this segmentation highlights
the separateness of the characters and their living in their own individual
worlds. In each of these stories, Anderson’s descriptions seem at first
glance to be only attempting to give the background for the action that is
taking place or will take shape. The reader gradually sees that the
descriptions that are abundant throughout the book serve to heighten the
reader's awareness of the moment. The scenes dramatize the moment that
seems as if it is always the immediate present leaving the future and the
past beyond any significance. The reader encounters one character at one
moment struggling with his/her separateness and inability to achieve
understanding by others or to think that success is achievable.
Anderson emphasizes the importance of the present moment over
any other. It is in this moment that he highlights the details of life, the
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little things that make his characters cognizant of their being alive, when
they realize the enormous possibilities and potentials of the moment,
potential that remain elusive and beyond their reach, yet they feel the
vibrancy of life. This vibrancy makes even less fulfilled because of their
inability to do anything with their feelings and ideas. It may seem at first
that Anderson is providing simple descriptions of his hometown. The
reader soon realizes that the descriptions are most often non-specific and
could be descriptions of any small midwestern town or village. The
descriptions serve also to dramatize the moment making the past and the
future irrelevant. These time disconnected moments, show time frozen
and heighten the readers' sense of these moments. Anderson keeps
presenting the significant moments to show that the life that matters is the
present. It is living, not having lived, that matters. His narrative never
varies from dwelling on the moments of life the characters experience.
Every story is constructed around these moments and descriptions. For
example, in "The Thinker," Seth walks with Helen White under the trees.
The reader is told,
Heavy clouds had drifted across the face of the
moon, and before them in the deep twilight went
a man with a short ladder upon his shoulder.
Hurrying forward, the man stopped at the street
crossing and, putting the ladder against the
wooden lamp-post, lighted the village lights so
that their way was half lighted, half darkened, by
the lamps and by the deepening shadows cast by
the low branched trees. In the tops of the trees
the wind began to play, disturbing the sleeping
birds so that they flew about calling plaintively.
In the lighted space before one of the lamps, two
bats wheeled and circled, pursuing the gathering
swarm of night flies. (١٦٧)
In "Sophistication," George and Helen White go to the grandstand of
the fair grounds. The narrator informs us that the two are sitting there at
that lonely place, and then moves on to say,
In Winesburg the crowded day had run itself out
into the long night of late fall. Farm horses
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Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village
jogged away along lonely country roads pulling
their portion of weary people. Clerks began to
bring samples of goods in off the sidewalks and
lock the doors of stores. In the Opera House a
crowd had gathered to see a show and further
down Main Street the fiddlers, their instruments
tuned, sweated and worked to keep the feet of
youth flying over a dance floor. (٣١٥-٣١٦)
Both instances do not advance the narrative or tell us anything about
the two characters. Life is happening, and the passages lyrically heighten
the moment the characters are living. At the same time, these characters
are not part of that communal life of the village. They are alone
observing that life and not being part of it.
Often the descriptions are full of sensory images that carve their
impression on the imagination of the reader and bring the scene to life.
Anderson depicts scenes that are full of the activities of living, activities
that are simple and happen every night and dusk. The details do not
affect the progress of the story. They bring it “live.” In "Mother," the
narrator tells us that when son and mother sat together in the evening,
Darkness came on and the evening train came in
at the station. In the street below feet tramped up
and down upon a broad sidewalk. In the station
yard, after the evening train had gone, there was
a heavy silence. Perhaps Skinner Leason, the
express agent, moved a truck the length of the
station platform. Over on Main Street sounded a
man's voice, laughing. The door of the express
office banged.
George Willard arose and
crossing the room fumbled for the door-knob.
Sometimes he knocked against a chair, making it
scrape the floor. (٢٨)
A clear attempt is made in this passage to evoke the sounds of the
place. Although it is not as lyrical in language as the passage from "The
Thinker" the lyricism of incidents palpably shows that life is going on;
the silence existing between the two on the scene, in contrast, is void of
any communication.١
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Descriptions are made to paint the canvas of the scene but often
seem to add nothing to the forward movement of the narrative. Quite the
contrary, they freeze that movement. Incidents that went on before are
mentioned often and what the characters are planning to do is also
mentioned but it is the present moment that is fixed in the mind and
occupies front stage. One can argue, that this is the way Anderson
shows his love for the village he is writing about. It is a keen awareness
of the little things of life in the village, the things that constitute all that
the characters of the village have and know. These little things function
often to create almost a visceral response in the reader who is bound to
respond to some of the little things that are mentioned because they come
out of universal human experience. Anderson's description of the fight of
a shop owner with a cat comes out of the experience of anyone who
observed cats with any interest sometime in life. There are many more
examples.
The setting compounds the feeling of loneliness and separateness
of the characters.
The scene of George and Helen White in
"Sophistication" as they sit in the darkness of the grandstand is a good
example. They have gone up to the hill in the Fairground. "The feeling
of loneliness and isolation that had come to the young man in the
crowded streets of his town was both broken and intensified by the
presence of Helen. What he felt was reflected in her”(٢٣٢). The fair had
been held a day before and the fair ground stand gave them a special
feeling. “The sensation is one never to be forgotten. On all sides are
ghosts, not of the dead, but of living people. Here . . . People have come
with their families and gathered and filled the place with life--but now the
life has all gone away. The silence is almost terrifying”(٢٣٢).
Readers remain aware of the vast frustration, lack of fulfillment,
deficiency of communion, and simply the general absence of happiness in
the characters’ lives in Anderson's book. There are however two nonrepresentative cases that show some hope for happiness .٤ Dr. Reefy and
Elizabeth Willard, we are told in "Death," had a chance to have genuine
love between them for they were communicating well with each other
during Elizabeth's visit to the doctor's office. However, a chance passerby shatters that possibility quickly. In "Paper Pills," the other
relationship with happiness also involves Dr. Reefy. He married a tall
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Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village
dark girl after he talked with her in his office about her victimization by
her suitor. In return, she listened to his peculiar ideas that he wrote on the
little pieces of paper. Events of the courtship and death of this girl after
her quick marriage happened in the past; these details of the relationship
occupy only a short passage of the story.
George feels happy with himself in "Nobody Knows," a story
concerning Louise Trunnion. But it is a twisted affair that degrades
human relationships and colors the character of George. He manages to
sleep with Louise but is relieved that no one saw them together and in
that way, she has “nothing on him.” He had taken advantage of Louise
sexually without having any emotional attachment to her. The escapade
shows, one can argue, his inability to interact with a member of the
opposite sex on an equal basis. There are other thwarted sexual feelings
in other stories. There is the Reverend Curtis Hartman, in "The Strength
of God," peeps from the church glass window to watch the undressed
neighbor Kate Swift. There is also Alice Hindman in "Adventure," who
was slept with her and left to the city with promises he did not keep and
she is who left to live a lonely life.
Marriage in Winesburg does not offer married people a chance to get
out of their loneliness or offer the chance to communicate with their
spouse. The most significant marriage in the book is that of Elizabeth and
Tom Willard who are unable to communicate or to view things the same
way. The differences between them drive Elizabeth to think of killing her
husband in order to save her son from following his father’s advice.
There is no marriage in Winesburg that is a happy except that brief one of
Dr. Reefy's.
Romantic relationships suffer also in Winesburg. Seth and Helen's
relationship was not meant to be because of the inability of each to
communicate with the other. The relationship of Louise Bentley with
John Hardy in "Godliness" is an example of a failed relationship that ends
in a failed marriage. In "An Awakening," the triangle of Belle Carpenter,
Ed Handby, and George Willard proves the inability of any two of them
to have a normal love relationship. Ed wants to propose to Belle but
instead threatens her. George thinks that he was grown enough to be
thought of as a suitable companion for Belle only to be toyed with by Ed
in front of Belle who does not know for sure what she wants.
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Most of the characters of Winesburg have trouble communicating
with others. Several critics have mentioned the fact that the characters of
Winesburg seek out George Willard to tell him their stories.٥ This
narrative device allows the readers to hear the inner thoughts of the
characters as they confide in George. Since George is the journalist who
wants to become a writer, it is often assumed that he represents young
Sherwood before leaving his little Ohio town for Chicago, as does
George at the end of the book.٦ George is always roaming the streets as
a reporter looking for news to publish in the town paper. It seems natural
for him to be the one to listen to the stories of the characters. But some
of the characters have trouble speaking even to him. Moments of
awkward silence are evident several times in several stories.
Elizabeth Willard, George's mother, is unable to express her wishes
and dreams to her son. In "Mother," the reader is told, "The communion
between George Willard and his mother was outwardly a formal thing
without meaning”(٢٦). "In the evening when the son sat in the room with
his mother, the silence made them both feel awkward”(٢٨). When they
talk later in the story he tells her, "I suppose I can't make you understand,
but oh, I wish I could." When he tells her that he wants to leave
Winesburg, she wanted to express herself by crying with joy but could
not accomplish that form of non-verbal communication. Again, silence
becomes unbearable to her. To manage the moment, she sends him
outdoors among the boys(٣٧). When she dies, close to the end of the
book, she had not been able to tell him about her hidden money, money
that could improve her son's life and take him away from her husband.
Nilsen Gokcen’s argument in his dissertation is that the characters of
Winesburg strive to break the barriers between them and others but there
is a lack of communication and as a result self-fulfillment is never
completed.
The difficulty to communicate faced by Anderson's characters
highlights the way they relate to their community. They are separate,
think differently from others, and have their own separate dreams, a
pattern that has its mark on them all. They match each other in being out
of harmony with the society of the Midwestern village. This situation of
Anderson's characters would seem even more pronounced if his treatment
of them is compared with that of other writers' characters who are placed
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Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village
in a village and who gain strength and comfort from their village
community. Many writers of the post civil war era looked at the villages
as a place where all citizens work in comfort and happiness. Positive
images of the village are found, for example, in the works of Booth
Tarkington among others. For the most part, these writers presented the
village as "a place of idyllic felicities"(Blankenship ٦٥٠). The village is
portrayed that way in other literatures when the circumstances portrayed
are similar to those of Anderson’s Winesburg: pre-industrial stage where
the community of the village acts according to clear patterns of conduct
and the values of its citizens are almost identical. These villages do not
have room for individuals, but rather in their pastoral setting, the
characters resemble each other in deed and thought. But the village is not
presented this way in Anderson's book.
Anderson's characters are obsessed with their own reality. The
positive quality that individualism once carried has become exaggerated,
distorted, and simply grotesque. One of the major influences on the
youths of Anderson's period was Robert Ingersoll's lectures on gods and
on humanity where he declares: "Every human being should take a road
of his own.... Every mind should think, investigate and conclude for
itself"(Gregory ٦). Ingersoll was echoing Emerson who stated in "SelfReliance," "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for
you in your private heart is true for all men, --that is genius”( McMichael
٤٩٥).
Emerson was making the grand statement of American
individualism that influenced generations of his compatriots. Later in the
essay he says, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives
at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he
must take himself for better for worse as his portion..."( McMichael ٤٩٦).
He also states, "Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.” “No
law can be sacred to me but that of my nature”(McMichael ٤٩٧). It seems
Anderson had these thoughts in mind when he wrote his definition not of
individualism but of the grotesque:
… the moment one of the people took one of the
truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to
live his life by it, he became a grotesques and the
truth he embraced a falsehood. (٥)
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Anderson's characters have their own truths that make them
grotesques, separate, and unable to commune with others. Even the
minor characters of the book are grotesques. We are told that the old
carpenter who fixes the writer’s bed is mentioned in the first story only
"because he, like many of what are called very common people, became
the nearest thing to what is understandable and lovable of all the
grotesques in the writer's book”(٥-٦). George Willard, the young
reporter, hears their stories. He hears with the adult Anderson’s ears; his
empathy for the pitiable grotesques drives him to write about their plight.
The individual in Winesburg feels lonely and isolated even
among crowds (٣١٣). Even when George is with Helen White, the
feeling of loneliness is intensified. He wants individualism to take over
not only his life but also that of others. He tells Helen, "I want you today
to be different from other women”(٣٠٨). His mother is no different: her
individuality prompts her to get hold of an idea when she is on a ride one
spring afternoon.
Thoughts came and I wanted to get away from
my thoughts. I began to beat the horse...I wanted
to get out of town, out of my clothes, out of my
marriage, out of my body out of everything.
(٢٩٤)
She wanted "to run away from everything." but wanted "to
run towards something too"(٢٩٤).
Anderson was not just describing grotesque characters of the village
but was showing the failure of the emphasis on individualism. Such
emphasis leads to the excesses that one sees in the characters of
Winesburg. Total absorption with inner light does not illuminate his
characters’ way towards salvation and fulfillment but to isolation and
frustration. There is no way for that individual to accomplish anything
alone when separated from his society. A society of individuals,
Winesburg shows us, is not a society but a group of individuals who live
side by side without having the same goals, outlook on life, or genuine
concern for others. Some characters of Winesburg are capable of
stepping out of their separate existences to show signs that not everything
is totally lost when they do show concern for others and stop thinking
about their obsessive ideas that keep them apart. The reader sees this in
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Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village
few instances in "Departure," "Paper Pills," and "Godliness." The ideal
of an individual human being who is capable of almost limitless
achievement is an ideal the characters aspire to but are incapable of
achieving. The world is too much for these individuals who are often
turned into grotesques. While this does not take away all the beauty out
of their lives, they have diminished in size. The characters are under a
great deal of stress due to standing alone and separate; as a result, they
become odd and suffer from the lack of support of others. To them,
uniqueness has become a curse.
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Endnotes
١. The Boston Transcript makes this observation through the title of
its review, "Ohio Small Town Life: Commonplace People and Their
Everyday Existence." (W.S.B. Boston Transcript, ١١ June ١٩١٩, p. ٦
quoted in Ray Lewis White, Compiler. The Merrill Studies in
Winesburg, Ohio. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co.,
١٩٧١, p.٣٠) Another review that appeared in The New Republic is titled,
"A Country Town." The reviewer finds that "the stories are homely and
unsympathetic" (M.A. "A Country Town" The New Republic, XIX(June
٢٥, ١٩١٩), ٢٥٧, ٢٦٠ reprinted in The Merrill Studies in Winesburg, Ohio,
٣٦).
٢. Many writers of the post civil war era looked at the village as a
place where all citizens work in comfort and happiness. Positive images
of the village are found, for example, in the works of Booth Tarkington
among others. For the most part, these writers presented the village as "a
place of idyllic felicities"(٦٥٠). But the village is not presented this way
in Anderson's book.
٣. Horace Gregory, suggested that despite the fact the stories of
Winesburg are "set in the remembered atmosphere of a small town in
America,” they “have a "universal"quality," yet he finds the scene
depicted to be close "to the roots of an American heritage . . ." (٤). Even
in the eighties one scholar comments that "Critics have concentrated, for
the most part, on the subject of small-town life in the Midwest . . . or
isolation . . . " (Fludernik ١١٦).
٤. Waldo Frank notes that the book has no happily married people,
no communion with children, no fulfilled sex, no normal social life, no
worship in congregation, no strength in organized religion, no joy, and no
maturing characters for the traditions and social structures on which the
world builds itself are lacking in Anderson's town (٤٥).
٥. Alan Steven Berkowitz suggests in his dissertation that Anderson
explored the isolation, lonliness and failure hidden in the American
village that gradually lost its agrarian values of charity and community.
٦. David Anderson in “Another Look at Community in Winesburg,
Ohio” argues that Sherwood Anderson “focused on the failures of
individuals to have their performances affirmed . . .”(٧٩). These
performances are “some sort of singularity”(٧٨).
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Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village
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٥١
Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village
-
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Received ٢٦/٣/٢٠٠٢.
٥٢
Damascus University Journal, Vol.٢٠, No. (١+٢), ٢٠٠٤
Kutrieh
Ahmad Ramez
Abstract
The paper argues that Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio
presents images of village life at a period of transition marked by change
from pre-motor times of harmonious living to a new era when individual
identities twisted by extreme individualism can no longer be affirmed.
The paper concludes that Anderson highlights the problems faced by
those individuals who chose to steer away from the common practices of
their fellow villagers. Further, Anderson illustrates through his characters
that excessive individualistic behavior results in unhappiness. Individuals
become unable to interact well or communicate effectively with others.
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