1. Discuss Anderson’s attitude toward the small town. Is Winesburg, Ohio an expose of small-town narrowness or a nostalgic re-creation of small-town virtues? (If you have read some other descriptions of small-town life you might want to compare them with Anderson’s. Among possible choices for such a comparison, consider Edgar […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essays Anderson’s Writing Style in Winesburg, Ohio
The difference in style between Anderson’s first two published works of fiction (Windy McPherson’s Son and Marching Men) and Winesburg is rather remarkable. In his first two books, Anderson tried to sound “literary”; instead, he sounded pompous and awkward. In Winesburg, there is still some evidence of this style; in […]
Read more Critical Essays Anderson’s Writing Style in Winesburg, OhioCritical Essays George Willard’s Development
One factor that unites the tales of Winesburg, Ohio into something resembling a novel is the developing character of George Willard. Anderson said that he wanted his book to give the “feeling of the life of a boy growing to manhood in a small town.” Thus the book became, to […]
Read more Critical Essays George Willard’s DevelopmentCritical Essays The Setting of Winesburg, Ohio
The town of Winesburg is described so clearly by Anderson that readers can easily imagine a map of the town (some texts actually include one). Basically the town is laid out like the letter H with Main Street forming the cross bar, the railroad forming the left leg, and Buckeye […]
Read more Critical Essays The Setting of Winesburg, OhioSherwood Anderson Biography
Sherwood Anderson is a writer whose reputation is based primarily on a single book, Winesburg, Ohio. Yet whether that book is a novel or a series of short stories, whether it is an expose of a small town’s moral decay or a nostalgic recreation of the small town before it […]
Read more Sherwood Anderson BiographySummary and Analysis Departure””
Summary The symbols drawn from nature and suggesting change are used again in “Departure.” It is spring rather than fall, as it was in “Sophistication,” so instead of fallen leaves and mature corn we have the imagery of buds and seeds. George is to leave early in the morning on […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Departure””Summary and Analysis Sophistication””
Summary Although many of the tales in Winesburg Ohio have dealt with lonely, frustrated people, “Sophistication” suggests that humans can also find moments of happiness. It is significant that the happiness described in this next-to-the-last tale is a silent hour of togetherness. Both George Willard and Helen White come to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Sophistication””Summary and Analysis Death””
Summary In the last three stories of Winesburg, Ohio, all written later than most of the other tales, Anderson seems to be deliberately trying to pull ideas and images together. In “Death,” for example, he returns to the past, years before the setting of “The Untold Lie” (concerning Ray Pearson) […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Death””Summary and Analysis Drink””
Summary From the title of this story, we might expect it to be about the town drunk; instead, it is about a quiet, gentle youth who drinks too much only one time. Tom Foster has come to Winesburg with his grandmother, who lived there in her youth. An unassuming youth, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Drink””Summary and Analysis The Untold Lie””
Summary “The Untold Lie” introduces us to two farm workers, Ray Pearson and Hal Winters. Ray is about fifty years old, has a sharp-featured, sharp-voiced wife and half-a-dozen thin-legged children. Hal is a twenty-two-year-old bachelor. As the two work side by side in the field one October day, Hal says […]
Read more Summary and Analysis The Untold Lie””