История литературы / 38. Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson was born in Camden, Ohio, on September 13th 1876. Through his 'Winesburg, Ohio' he established himself as a leading figure in the Chicago literary Renaissance, and marked a new Realism in American writing. Anderson began writing this book in 1915. All the stories fell into place one after the other and 'Winesburg, Ohio' was born. Thus the stories are clearly autobiographical. The hero in all the stories, George Willard is the author himself and it is believed that many of the other characters were old neighbors and acquaintances. There are twenty-five stories in the entire set up. Certain characters are repeated in the stories, with George Willard remaining the mainstay. This new realism in writing influenced many other writers like Hemmingway, Faulkner and Steinbeck. Sh. Anderson was influenced by realism, because it was the very air which he breathed, but there was also a good deal of the romantic in him. He spoke of writing by “feel” rather than by plan. “The short story”, he once said, “is the result of a sudden passion”. The heroes of A.’s stories are seekers of experience. Like Chekhov, who influenced him, A. usually treats them with great sympathy & compassion. Often, as with Chekhov, what goes on inside the characters, their hidden life, is more important than what occurs on the surface. He often works with inner monologues to bring out their hidden life. The theme in each story differs and there is no common theme in any of the stories. Most of these Themes deal with human character and values. Certain traits of men and women, some obvious and some hidden, have been demonstrated. The author has assimilated a wide range of human emotions, characters and behavioral patterns found in this one particular society. The main theme is the writer writing the book himself, which contains the concept of the grotesques. The author through the old man’s Book of Grotesques wants the reader to understand the theme of loneliness and inter-personal relationship. The mood is solemn and quiet. There is hardly any dialogue, and conveys just the need for the old man to put down his notions into words. This story is more of a prologue for the rest of the stories, than a separate story by itself. When the old man sits down to write, he etches out a row of 'grotesques.' These grotesques are formed by the same men, who try to pick a truth and in turn make it their truth. In each of the short stories, one grotesque is to be found. Their lives have been distorted, disfigured and maimed (искалеченные) because of some particular incident or event. These people have become grotesques because they were unable to communicate their problems properly to others and so remained caught in the snares of their own problems and became emotional cripples. George Willard, the common character in all the stories does attempt to draw them out, and many of them do find in him a sympathetic listener. But some of them even George fails to draw out. 'PAPER PILLS' This simplistic story of a man and a woman deals also with the innermost layers of human behavior. The marriage of a wealthy, beautiful girl to a strange doctor from the unknown town of Winesburg is certainly curious. But her past experience explains her decision. Doctor Reefy - The doctor is an old man with a white beard and a huge nose and large hands. He gets married to a woman who has money, and soon his wife dies, leaving him a widower. Doctor Reefy has the habit of scribbling on bits of paper (probably, he write the thoughts that he could not communicate to others) which he crumples to make balls out of them only to stuff them in his pockets. He constantly seems to be contemplating about truth. Though he is shown to be anti-sentimentalist as he mocks his friend. Though he is a lonely person, as he does not have anyone to communicate his feelings and thoughts to. The first suitor is depicted as a man of words who is vociferous on the subject of virginity. This would otherwise portray him as a man of character and morals, with a pure upbringing. But his constant harping on the subject reveals his inner obsession with the topic, which is far more dangerous and unseemly. Compared to him, the other suitor, who was at least open about his desires, was a better choice. Finally it is her unwanted pregnancy that takes her to Doctor Reefy. Her meeting with the doctor has been compared to the discovery of the sweetness of twisted apples. These gnarled apples see the ones rejected by the pickers and left on the ground. Their sweetness surpasses that of the perfectly rounded apples. Once the girl had tasted the sweetness of Doctor Reefy and his common life at the Winesburg town, she couldn't bear to taste the sickly sweetness of city life. The author's interest over hands is repeated in this chapter too. The doctor's knuckles are described extensively and even the 'white hands' of the first suitor describe his obsession over virginity. These same hands recur in her dream too "holding her body in his hands and turning it slowly." The writer, through this story has tried to make the reader understand that it should be our mandate to find a sweet corner in every human being and taste it. It is the hidden and unseen goodness in a person that should be noticed and appreciated. 'HANDS' The main theme of the story is the consequences on a poor man's life, for loving his students and wishing to do good for them. In this story, the author has outlined the theme of the love, which has however been taken out of context and twisted out of shape by the students. The reader feels gloomy and dismayed on reading this story as its depth is well depicted. The pitiful, lonely existence of Wing draws sympathy from the reader. Wing Biddlebaum, a fat, little, old man is walking up and down the veranda of his small house, which stood near a ravine, near the town of Winesburg, Ohio. Wing Biddlebaum, while he has lived in this town for twenty years, still does not consider himself a part of it. He is close to only one boy, George Willard, the son of Tom Willard. Biddlebaum's hands are very expressive and restless; he always seems to speak through his hands. His hands restless activities, like the beatings of the wings of an imprisoned bird, have earned him his name. In Winesburg, his hands have attracted attention merely because of their activity, and have become a distinguishing feature for his fame. George is fascinated by Wings's hands and feels that there must a reason to this fascination. One day, both are involved in a deep discussion and Wing is criticising George for letting himself be influenced by people. Wing, who is totally involved now, forgets his hands, and slips them on George's shoulders. He goes on speaking about forgetting all that he has learned, and he begins to dream. And as Wing speaks, his eyes glow and his hands caress George's face. Immediately he realizes what he is doing and with a look of horror, leaves abruptly. George is perplexed but decides to leave the subject of Wing's hands. But the real story behind his hands is that as a young man, Biddlebaum was a schoolteacher in Pennsylvania, and was known as Adolph Myers. He was a very gentle soul, who ruled by a gentle power. With his boys, he used to be lost as if in a dream. While speaking to them, he would unconsciously caress their tousled (взъерошивать) heads and stroke their shoulders. Under his hands, all the doubts and disbelief of the youngsters disappeared. The tragedy struck when a half-witted boy misunderstood his intentions and blurted out his feelings about the caresses. This instigated all the others who began disbelieving his pure intentions. Adolph was driven out of the school and ridiculed. Thus for twenty years, Adolph lived alone in Winesburg, with his stained past only his secret. He only understood that his poor hands were to blame and so always kept them hidden, away from the prying eyes of the people. 'MOTHER' This deeply psychological story reveals the semi-fanatic obsession of mother for her only son, an obsession that would even take recovers to murder. Elizabeth Willard's life is one of drudgery (монотонность) and stagnation (застой). Against this is her husband's forceful, go- getting personality, which jars with the slovenliness (неаккуратность) of his wife. Her need to express herself and her desire to fulfill her restlessness leads her to an unwanted marriage with Tom Willard. The theme of possessiveness and especially a mother's over possessiveness has been beautifully described. The son is no integral part of the mother's life, that she is not even willing to share him with her own husband who is the boy's own father (the boy’s father wants him to go from the city to work). Such possessiveness and obsession can tilt the mind towards any foolhardy behavior. This lonely woman's rage is so strong, that it pushes her to attempt murder on her husband. Her desire to actually commit the crime, but in a theatrical get-up, shows the extent of her mad obsession over her son. Her imagination is vivid and fearsome - "As a tigress whose cub had been threatened, would she appear, coming out of the shadows, stealing noiselessly." However, one sentence from her son, about no one understanding him, "I can't even talk to father about it" subdues all her passions and she is once again confident of his love for her. The myth of a happy loving family is attacked in this story. The outward lack of communication between parent and son in clothed with deep-rooted desires and psychological fears of being unloved. The extent, to which the mother would go to keep her son to herself, is hair-raising. Such behavior of the mother goes to make the relationship an insane obsession. What makes this volume of short stories a class apart from other short stories is the ingenious linking of one story to another with threads composing of characters, place, and certain similarities of mannerism. A.’s figures tend to have extremely awkward & grotesque features, functioning as a form of metonymy, which loom from their bodies.The author Sherwood Anderson strives to make use of certain physical characteristics, which are common in many of the stories. The finest example is the symbolic use of the hands. Hands play a major part as a linking factor among many of his stories. The first story is titled 'Hands' and dwells on a character who has a habit of using his hands while talking. In the next story 'Paper' pills’ a reference to hands is made. 'The knuckles of the doctors hands were extraordinary large. When the hands were closed they looked like clusters of unpainted wooden balls." In 'Respectability', Wash Williams who is otherwise a grotesque, unclean man, his hands are surprisingly clean. 'His fingers were fat but there was something sensitive and shapely in the hand.' This is an example of Sherwood Anderson's exquisite style of writing which attempts at threading (связывать) together some of the stories with at least one unifying element.