Winesburg, Ohio is considered to be the brightest sample of the legacy left by Sherwood Anderson, his later works, such as Many Marriages and Dark Laughter failed to bring him the same level of success and acceptance by the public.
Sherwood Anderson’s work is in many ways autobiographical as the author himself was born in the state of Ohio in 1876. Although his family traveled extensively in the United States and the world, Sherwood eventually returned to Ohio to finish his schooling. After succeeding in establishing a small business, and raising three children, Sherwood left his family and hometown to pursue a writing career in Chicago. After marrying unsuccessfully again several times and traveling to other countries, Anderson died in 1941 in Panama.
His work Winesburg, Ohio was written in 1919, the story portrays a small town Winesburg in the heart of the United States depicted as a prototype of the American ideal that started disappearing in the country that was becoming increasingly urbanized. Winesburg is presented as a place where the social norms define every aspect of human existence, and it is the opinion of others that shapes the individuality of every resident. Through its expressiveness and unique style, Winesburg, Ohio defined the character of American short stories for the next several decades.
Winesburg, Ohio is a collection of 24 stories about different people who lived in Winesburg and all were somehow connected, though not directly. Winesburg, Ohio opens with a chapter entitled âThe Book of Grotesqueâ in which an old man imagines different people who are obsessed with some type of truths. This chapter serves as an entry point into the rest of the chapters as all of the bookâs characters represent some variation of human grotesque. For example, in the next chapter Anderson depicts a man who had grotesque hands that greatly influenced the course of his life.
The main themes of the book are loneliness and isolation as every single character of the book is lonely and in some way isolated from others (such as the doctor whom we meet in the second chapter â he is isolated from others in his office grieving over the death of his young wife). The only exception is the main character â George Willard, as almost all other characters feel that they can rely on him.
It is also through this character that the structure of the story is developing allowing the reader to follow George through the important stages of life into manhood and leaving on the train into a big life leaving the grotesque of Winesburg behind.
It is also to George that Dr. Parcival from The Philosopher reveals the secret of life to, âEverybody in the world is Christ and they are all crucifiedâ through this revealing that in their nature, every human being is a godlike creature, and yet we all have to go through sufferings and ordeals when going through life.
The alienation takes a variety of forms in the book. For example, in the chapter Mother the author talks about alienation between the husband and his wife, in Philosopher the alienation almost takes the form of paranoia of Dr. Parcival.
It consequently seems that the idea of happiness is completely foreign to all the residents of Winesburg except for Joe Welling and Tom Foster who have learned to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.
Thus, the book Winesburg, Ohio takes its reader to an imaginary and enchanting, yet grotesque world of isolation and alienation and the consequences it had on the residents of the town. It does not simply fantasize about what could happen, it depicts issues that became increasingly important for the American society at times of shift towards urbanization from rural lifestyle.