小镇畸人中的人物分析
有关青春的作文-法国工程师大学排名
《小镇畸人》人物分析
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to express my sincere thanks to lots of
people who have contributed to this thesis.
First, I should thank all the teachers of
Foreign Language Department for their excellent
and
patient guidance during my study in
Zaozhuang University. My sincere and deep
appreciation
also goes to my supervisor Ge
Xiaoxia for her constant encouragement and
valuable guidance
for me. She has walked me
through all the stages of the writing of this
thesis. Without her
consistent and patient
instruction, this thesis could not have reached
its present form.
Meanwhile, my thanks would
go to my beloved family for their consideration
and support
all through these years. Without
my parents’ patience and love, I can not endure
the hardship and
pain in my life.
Besides,
I am grateful to all my fellow classmates and
roommates for their help and care
when I have
difficulties in writing the thesis.
作者 张燕 第i页
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
ABSTRACT
Anderson Sherwood
(1876-1941) is one of the most influential
American writers in the
early twentieth
century. He earns an important place in American
literature for his famous short
stories.
Winesburg, Ohio is Anderson’s most successful and
famous work that consists of twenty
five
interrelated but independent stories concerning
townspeople termed by Anderson as
“grotesques”.
This paper consists of five
chapters. Chapter one introduces the author and
the novel.
Chapter two analyzes the images of
the grotesque people who are painfully struggling
in the
plight of loneliness, frustration and
repression. This analysis helps to understand
their character
and weird behaviors. Chapter
three discusses the fundamental reasons of
people’s grotesqueness.
They are explored
mainly from the external and internal aspects.
Chapter four introduces the
ways to salvation
of grotesques. Although they are unacceptable by
the common people, they do
not thoroughly feel
hopeless and they never give up their pursuit of
understanding and love.
Chapter five makes a
conclusion of the thesis. The analysis of the
grotesques helps to fully
understand the novel
and the social background. Through analyzing, the
literature and social
significance can also be
well captured.
The early twentieth century
sees a transitional period from an agricultural
society to an
industrial one. As a spokesman
of this period, Anderson shows us the fate of the
unknown
grotesques with his keen observation.
They long for love and freedom but used to isolate
themselves. They have the most intense emotion
and feeling but fail to express. The
industrialized society and the flaws in their
character bring them confusion. They begin to say
strange words, do odd things, and finally
become grotesques.
Key Words: Anderson
Sherwood, Winesburg, Ohio, Grotesques
作者 张燕
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
摘 要
舍伍德·安德
森(1876-1941)是美国二十世纪初期最具影响力的作家之一。安德森卓
越的短篇小说作品奠定
他在美国文学史上重要地位。《小镇畸人》是安德森最成功也是
最著名的一部作品。这部作品由二十五个
互相关联又相对独立的故事组成，作品中的人
物则是被安德森称为“畸人”的小镇居民。
本文
主要有五部分，第一部介绍了作者及所处时代背景。第二部分是分析畸人形
象，了解畸人的行为心理特征
，他们行为言语怪异，心理扭曲，心情压抑、消沉。第三
部分是分析畸人形成的原因，既有外在的社会原
因又有内在的个人问题。第四部分是分
析畸人的救赎之路。虽然他们不被常人所接纳，但他们始终对自己
抱有希望，用实际行
动进行对爱与理解的追求。第五部分是对论文做出总结。本论文对畸人进行分析，对
于
全面理解小说，深入了解作品创作的时代社会背景，以及作品的文学意义和社会意义有
一定帮
助。
二十世纪初的美国正经历从农业社会到工业社会的转变，作为社会转型时期的代言
人，安
德森以其敏锐的观察力向我们展示了不为所知的畸人的命运，他们渴望爱与自由
却往往自我隔离，拥有最
强烈的感情而疏于表达。这种自身性格方面的缺陷和对工业文
明的无所适从，让他们困惑迷茫、言行怪异
，最终成为时代的畸人。
关键词：舍伍德·安德森，《小镇畸人》， 畸人
作者
张燕 第iii页
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...........
..................................................
................................................
i
ABSTRACT ...............................
..................................................
..................................................
. ii
摘 要 .................................
..................................................
..................................................
.......... iii
CONTENTS ..................
..................................................
..................................................
............. iv
Chapter One Introduction
..................................................
..................................................
............ 1
1.1 Introduction of
Anderson Sherwood and Winesburg, Ohio
.............................................
1
1.2 Literature Review of Winesburg, Ohio
..................................................
.......................... 2
Chapter Two
The Images of the Grotesques .....................
..................................................
............ 3
2.1 The Concept of
Grotesque ........................................
..................................................
...... 3
2.2 The Lonely, Frustrated and
Repressed Grotesques .............................
............................. 4
2.2.1
Adolph Myers in “Hands” ..........................
..................................................
............. 4
2.2.2 Elizabeth Willards
in “Mother” ......................................
........................................... 4
2.2.3 Jesse Bentley in “Godliness” ...........
..................................................
........................ 5
2.3 A special
Grotesque ........................................
..................................................
............... 5
Chapter Three The
Reasons of the Formation of the Grotesques .......
............................................ 7
3.1 External Reasons .........................
..................................................
................................... 7
3.2
Internal Reasons .................................
..................................................
............................ 8
Chapter
Four The Roads to Salvation of the Grotesques ....
..................................................
........ 10
4.1 Contacting with George
Willard ..........................................
.......................................... 10
4.2 Running Away of George Willard ...........
..................................................
.................... 11
Chapter Five
Conclusion .......................................
..................................................
...................... 12
REFERENCES .....
..................................................
..................................................
..................... 13
作者 张燕
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
Chapter
One Introduction
1.1 Introduction of
Anderson Sherwood and Winesburg, Ohio
Anderson
Sherwood is an important figure in modern
literature. His writing has deeply
influenced
many writers such as Hart Crane, Erskine Caldwell,
Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller,
William
Faulkner and Nathanael West. William Faulkner once
said that he could only write
simple poems and
amateur stuff before he met Anderson. It’s
Anderson that gave him inspiration
and led him
to a correct road of creation. In the magazine
Paris Review, Faulkner declared
Anderson’s
stature, “He is the father of my generation of
American writers and the tradition of
American
writing which our successors will carry on”
(Malcolm, 1971).
Anderson was born in Clyde,
Ohio, a small and poor town that was experiencing
a
transitional period from the old handicrafts
to modern machines. The Increasing wealth and
material production made people feel empty and
repressive in psychology and the declining
agriculture made numerous people feel more
miserable. Due to poverty, in his early twenties,
Anderson went to Chicago to make a living.
Through many years’ hardworking, Anderson
became a member of middle class. But wealth
did not bring him true happiness. He determined
to abandon his business and began literary
creation that he liked. Special experience made
him
have a deeper understanding and
interpretation of humanity. He paid attention to
portraying
human emotion, catching the
momentary feelings of the figures, to revealing
the personality of
the characters and the
mysteries hidden in their innermost. In 1919,
Anderson Sherwood
published Winesburg, Ohio, a
short story cycle, in which Anderson well applied
this writing
style and this novel made him a
great success.
Winesburg, Ohio is made up of
25 short stories and depicts 23 grotesques in the
town
Winesburg. These stories can be linked
together. They have the same setting: an American
Mid-
western town and the same theme:
loneliness, alienation and desire for
communication.
Meanwhile, each of the stories
can also be seen as an independent biography of a
grotesque. The
deformed characters have
different awkward appearances and odd behaviors.
For example, Wing
Biddlebaum in the story
“Hands” was a fat old man with tangled hair. He
always put his
trembling hands in his pocket
or behind his back because he could not control
them. Almost
every evening, he walked
anxiously on the half rotten porch waiting for
George. He expected
George to come and
converse with him. In “Paper Pill”, the character
Reef was an old doctor
with white mustache,
big nose and big hands, staying in his empty
clinic all day. Alice Hyndman
作者 张燕
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
in “Adventure”
was an old maid who nakedly ran on the street in a
snowy night. Compared with
the successful
people in Winesburg, these grotesques are
gradually forgotten. Although the
grotesques
are weird and unacceptable by common people, they
never stop the pursuit for others’
understanding and acceptance. No matter what
the life is like, they always possess their
valuable
dreams. Wing Biddlebaum once told
George that he should start dreaming. In a way,
they are a
group of lovely people that deserve
to be understood and respected.
1.2
Literature Review of Winesburg, Ohio
Winesburg, Ohio is considered as Anderson’s
most outstanding novel which arouses many
critics’ attention. Some critics tend to
regard it as being naturalistic or realistic. They
think that
Anderson “attempts to expound the
theory of a universe of mechanistic forces
operating on his
people. He tries to focus on
the constant and careful accumulation of realistic
details” (Ferres,
1966). Some critics discuss
it from a geographical point of view for Anderson
sets the
background in a Mid-western town.
They put Anderson in the same field with Mark
Twain who
is the master in the native American
modern literature.
And more recently, many
critics analyze the work from a more popular
sociological point of
view. The work tends to
be interpreted with reference to such words as
loneliness, frustration,
repression and so on.
They hold that “Winesburg, Ohio is a systematic
exploration of Mid-
westerners’ living
situation during the transitional period in
American history from the pastoral
society to
the industrial society” (Simolke, 1999). They find
that with the coming of the machine
age, the
old agrarian economy gradually disappears in the
town and the townspeople who are
struggling in
the industrialized world become deformed
physically or spiritually more or less.
Through exploring the deformed characters in
Winesburg Ohio, the paper can get a deep
appreciation of Anderson Sherwood and his
grotesque images which are so important in
American 1iterature. The research on the
grotesque characters in this novel can also
enlighten the
modern people who are in the
same plight in an industrial world.
作者 张燕
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
Chapter
Two The Images of the Grotesques
2.1 The
Concept of Grotesque
The origin of
the word “grotesque” can be traced back to Italian
“grotto”. It refers to
decorative ornaments
such as rocks, pebbles and medallions sphinxes. In
literary field, it usually
“signifies what is
ridiculous, bizarre, or unnatural” (Crowley,
1988). It deviates from desirable
standard of
harmony, balance, and proportion. It is often used
for comic and exaggerated
sarcastic effects in
physical and behavioral caricature. In Oxford
Advanced Learner’s English-
Chinese Dictionary,
“grotesque” is defined as something strangely
distorted and unnatural so as
to give rise to
laughter or fear.
Grotesque holds a unique
position in American literary history. Dieter
Mendel remarks in
his American Fiction and the
Metaphysics of the Grotesque, “The grotesque
presents all
important and largely unexplored
aspect of the growth and development of American
fiction and
endows American fiction with a
tradition, or continuity of the discontinuous”
(Dieter, 1991).
This tradition greatly and
deeply affects many famous literary writers.
Accordingly, numerous
excellent grotesque
works appear in American literature. The
development of grotesque
literature greatly
influences and shapes the literature of the United
States. There are many
masters who are skilled
in depicting grotesques in America, and among them
Anderson
Sherwood is an eminent one.
In
Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson evolves the concept of
“grotesque” to make clear what has
made his
people physical strangers and spiritual outsiders.
For instance, in “Paper Pill”, Doctor
Reef was
a strange and lonely man staying in his empty
clinic with the never opened window
hung with
cobwebs. He rarely stepped out and he always wore
the same clothes. His hobby was
to put scrapes
of paper recording his thought and feeling into
his pocket. When the pocket was
full, he
poured the small paper ball onto the floor or
sometimes threw them at his only friend
John.
Anderson’s usage of grotesque does not mean
disgust or revulsion. Instead, he compares the
grotesques to “the twisted little apples” left
behind in the orchards for their surface
blemishes.
However, these imperfect apples are
the sweetest ones. As to the townspeople, though
their
words and behaviors are strange, they
also have the beautiful and lovely side. Anderson
reveals
that the physical and spiritual
deformities of the so-called grotesques merely
intensify their
作者 张燕
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
longing for
understanding, love and acceptance. The grotesques
in the town “were not all
horrible. Some were
amusing, some almost beautiful” (Anderson, 2004).
2.2 The lonely, Frustrated and Repressed
Grotesques
Winesburg, Ohio consists of 25
short stories taking place in the small town
Winesburg. The
novel can be viewed as a whole,
because the stories in it are linked together by
the newspaper
reporter George Willard who
witnesses the suffering and struggling of the
grotesque people in
the small town. Meanwhile,
each story can also be seen as independent. Every
deformed
character has his or her unique
experience. Their awkward appearances and odd
behaviors are
different from each other. This
paper mainly analyzes three characters of the
novel. They are
Wing Biddlebaum in “Hands”,
Elizabeth Willards in “Mother” and Jesse Bentley
in “Godliness”.
2.2.1 Adolph Myers in “Hands”
The reader can firstly feel the loneliness,
frustration and repression from the first
character
who is introduced in the story of
“Hands”. It told a pitiful grotesque named Wing
Biddlebaum
who got the nickname for his hands
were always restless like the beating of the wings
of an
imprisoned bird. Wing always strived to
conceal his hands in the pockets or behind his
back.
Adolph Myers in “Hands” was once a
teacher often expressing his affection and love
for the
boys through his warm caresses with
his hands. But a foolish boy told the townspeople
the
teacher did the unspeakable things to him
which did not happen in fact. So people in the
town
were so angry that they beat Adolph Myers
and drove him out of the town. Adolph Myers
escaped to the town Winesburg, changed his
name and lived alone there. Losing the courage and
ability to be a teacher, he became a laborer
in the small town. With his flexible hands, he
could
pick great quantity of strawberries.
Everyone knew he was a good berry picker. His
hands which
were used for communication and
expression now brought him fame, which sounds
ironic. This
made an already grotesque more
grotesque. Wing always went back and forth on the
porch
waiting and hoping that George would
come and spend the evening with him so that he
could get
some comfort and be relieved from
loneliness, frustration and repression for a
while.
2.2.2 Elizabeth Willards in “Mother”
In the fourth story “Mother”, the character
Elizabeth Willards is described as a woman who
embodies the spiritual loneliness and sexual
frustration of the women in the town. She has the
desire to express herself, but is too silent
to do so. In the story, Elizabeth Willard who was
brought up by her careless father had a
miserable childhood. Getting no maternal love, she
grew
up and became a woman with strong desire
for love and change. At that time, she was a
beautiful
girl who once surprised the
townspeople by wearing men’s clothes and riding a
bike on Main
Street. She liked adventures in
life and dreamt of becoming an actor. But it
failed when people in
作者 张燕
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
the theatrical
company told her that “it’s as dull and
uninteresting as here” (Anderson, 2004). So
she attempted to realize her dreams by dating
with men at night, which could not be accepted by
the conventional rules.
Through this way,
in fact, Elizabeth seeks for the meaning of her
life and what she really
pursues is the true
love. But she still feels lonely and repressed for
these adventures do not
change her life. Later
she met Tom and her hope was once again ignited.
But her hasty marriage
to Tom brought her
nothing but more frustration and repression. Her
husband was a big talker, a
not so responsible
member in the family, instead of a desirable mate
which she sought for in her
whole life. Her
sense of frustration and disillusionment made the
woman hopeless and spiritless.
“Everything in
the life of the suppressed spirit turns out to be
grey and disappointing” (Ren,
2007).
Disappointed at love, marriage and her own life,
she was unable to love or respect her
husband
and she focused her love and interest on her son
George Willard. When she found that
the
conversation between her husband and George had a
bad effect on her son, with great hatred,
she
wanted to kill Tom with the scissors as the
dagger. Though she was full of hope and love
towards George, she did not know how to
express her thoughts and feelings. Every time when
she wanted to talk with her son, she trembled
with excitement, never showed her joy and sorrow
for it’s impossible for her. In the story
“Death”, Elizabeth’s hope dashed when she was
approaching death because George did not come
to see her or receive her financial assistance.
Desiring for the meaning of life, passion and
love during her whole life, Elizabeth Willards
finally died lonely at the middle age. The
family that should bring her happiness was hostile
and
indifferent. Elizabeth’s failed marriage
and life was an epitome of the families in
Winesburg.
2.2.3 Jesse Bentley in
“Godliness”
In the story “Godliness”, the main
figure Jesse Bentley longed for success and
fantasized
that he could become such
outstanding figures as the celebrities in the
Bible, establish his own
kingdom through his
own efforts. For this, his wife worked day and
night and this damaged her
health. After
giving birth to their first child, the poor woman
died. When his grandson David
visited him,
lots of queer ideas appeared in his mind. He
brought David to the forest imagining
he was
the father of David in Bible. David was scared by
his grandfather’s terrible expression.
Later,
he brought David to the depths of the forest
again. Jesse Bentley knelt down and prayed
loudly, fantasizing the ancient sacrifice.
When he was carrying a knife towards David, the
frightened boy shot his head and run away.
During all his life, Jesse Bentley lived in his
fantasized ancient times. At last, he lost all
his relatives and lived lonely.
2.3 A
special Grotesque
作者 张燕
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
In Winesburg
Ohio, George Willard is portrayed as a young
artist who works for Winesburg
Eagle paper as
a reporter. He is a special character. He is
called “grotesque” because he also has
the
similar characteristics as other grotesques, such
as loneliness, frustration and repression.
Especially when he faces his mother, he is at
a loss and does not know what to say and how to
express his thoughts and feelings. In the
story “Mother”, he answered his mother’s question
about his departure, “I suppose I can not make
you understand, but oh, I wish I could” (Anderson,
2004). George shows his love and sympathy to
the grotesques in the town, while he seems
powerless in front of his mother. In “Death”,
facing his mother’ death, George’s innermost
emotion which was never shown to his mother
burst out. He muttered “The dear, the dear, oh the
lovely dear” (Anderson, 2004). These words are
uttered too late for his mother, a woman lacking
in love, will never hear them.
However, to some degree, he is ungrotesque. He
is not like other grotesques.
On one hand, the
other deformed characters seldom contact lots of
people in town. They are
used to confining
themselves to their small personal world. Doctor
Reef is a very obvious
example. For many
years, he shuts himself in his small clinic; even
do not opens the window that
is covered with
spider webs, while George is different. He deals
with different townspeople. As a
reporter, he
gathers every piece of information about the
events that is happening in the town. It
is
accessible for him to get in touch with a lot of
people. George is the thread that links all the
inhabitants’ life.
On the other hand,
George Willard is different from other outcasts
because he has the
possibility and ability to
change. His job provides him with the chance to
come into contact with
other people and the
townspeople are willing to tell him their concern
for they think George is a
passionate young
person and he can understand them. Through getting
along with others, George
gradually refreshes
his vision of knowledge. His determination to
escape from the gloomy small
town signifies he
has stepped out the confinement which impedes the
development of the
townspeople. So he can be
regarded as the only one who changes thoroughly in
Winesburg.
作者 张燕
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
Chapter
Three The Reasons of the Formation of the
Grotesques
It is known that every thing has its causes.
In Winesburg, Ohio, many factors foster the
formation of the so-called grotesques. This
paper mainly analyzes two reasons: external
reasons
and internal reasons, or social and
personal reasons.
3.1 External Reasons
In Winesburg, Ohio, the stories took place in
the transitional period in the United States,
from the end of the Civil War to the beginning
of 20
th
century. At that time, America was
undergoing great change from an agricultural
society to an industrial one and industrialization
greatly promoted the rapid development of the
American economy. However, this process also
brought about the side effects, such as the
increasingly serious environmental pollution,
ecological damage and the rapid growth of
population. A seat of factories, mines and cities
were
built, which gradually destroyed the life
of the idyllic and beautiful countryside. Man and
nature
were isolated from each other. The
industrialization brought modernization, while the
competition became more fiercely. This had
made commerce hold an irreplaceable place in the
economy in America and made men become the
tool of money and profit. All the simple
goodness of virtue was lost in the 19th
century, the noisy era. The establishment of the
factory
system made the exploitation more
convenient. Under the bad conditions of the
workplace and
the unbearable labor intensity
for a long time, large numbers of workers
prematurely get old and
deformed. Selfishness,
cruelty, luxury, hypocrisy had become the distinct
characteristics of
Western social morality in
the 19th century. Many people’s value reduced to a
transactional basis.
In Anderson’s
autobiography A Story Teller’s Story, he declares,
“In their fingers the beginning
of that love
of surfaces, of the sensual love of materials,
with which no true civilization can ever
be
born” (Anderson, 1969).
During that
transitional period, the small towns like
Winesburg in America were just
starting to be
affected by industrialization and mechanization.
Increasing wealth and material
production made
people feel empty, repressed and frustrated.
Everywhere was permeated with
the desire for
money and power. Agriculture declined as a result
of the manufacturing. The
handcraft and the
traditional means of living were also destroyed.
Men and women had to leave
the villages to big
cities and what they did in the city was to work
under the exploitation of the
owner of the
factory for they had to struggle for survival.
作者 张燕 第
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
Under this
changing society, Winesburg lost its previous
harmony. People lost their
spiritual substance
and their orientation. In his letter to Jerome and
Lucile Blum, Anderson
vividly pointed out the
changes in the small American Middle Western towns
like Winesburg at
this transitional period.
“There are not many dare lovely people, even a
little. People shiver along,
quarrel, say
nasty things, then go home and pray to God”
(Anderson, 1953). The changing
society let
them become more and more depressed, confused and
frustrated. Thus the
psychological crisis
gradually appeared. People inclined to retreat to
a self-constrained life,
became angry and
cynical, and responded to the outside world with a
mixed emotion and
negative attitude; they
could not adjust themselves to the changing world
and finally became
grotesques.
3.2
Internal Reasons
The external reasons that
play a role in the formation of the grotesques are
explained above.
In this section, the internal
reasons will be illustrated. In Winesburg, Ohio, a
number of figures
become grotesque or
“outsiders”. Besides the influence of the social
change, their own
psychological problems also
foster their grotesqueness. On one hand, they
seize upon one or
several “truths” that
barrier, isolate, and estrange them. On the other
hand, their lack of love,
understanding, and
their incapability of communicating with others
further lead to their
loneliness, repression,
frustration and grotesqueness.
In “The Book
of the Grotesque”, Anderson pointed out that it’s
the truth that made people
grotesque. The
following is how he explains it:
“There was
the truth of virginity and the truth of passion,
the truth of poverty and
of wealth, of thrift
and of profligacy, of abandon and carelessness.
Hundreds and
hundreds were the truths and they
were all beautiful.
And then people came
along. Each snatched up one of the truths as he
appeared
and some who were very strong
snatched up dozens of them.
It was truths that
made the people become grotesque. It was his
notion that 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
grotesque and the truth he embraced became a
falsehood”(Anderson, 2004: 5-6).
Although
these grotesques long for understanding by others,
they fail to step out of the
“truth” prison to
have normal exchange with other people. What they
do is to retreat into
isolation as a defense
against the outside world. They suppress
themselves to express feeling,
thought and
love, lest the heart get hurt again.
作者
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
In this novel, the grotesques have keen desire
for love and understanding, but they rarely get
them. In “Hand”, Wing Biddlebaum attempted to
express his love for his students through
caressing them with his hands. But he was
misunderstood and punished by the citizens for
they
thought he was a homosexual. He was
driven out of his hometown losing the courage to
express
his feeling again. In “The Teacher”,
Kate Swift was tortured by lack of love and
understanding.
She always repressed her inner
thought and passion because few people got close
to her or really
understood and appreciated
her. In “Paper Bill”, Doctor Reef met his true
love who could
understand him. Unfortunately,
that woman died one day. From then on, Doctor Reef
confined
himself into the small clinic and
seldom walked out. One thing he had been used to
doing was to
write down his feelings and
thoughts on scrapes of paper. Elmer Cowley in the
story of “Queer”
tried to gain love and
respect from his neighbors but what he got was
just contempt, which
greatly hurt him and let
his courage disappear. The seemingly normal man,
Seth Richmond in
“The Thinker” even had no
courage to show Helen White his love for her and
thus lost the
possibility of getting love.
In the story “Mother”, Elizabeth Willard was a
person who was lacking in love. She never
got
her parents’ care and her husband’s love even if
she had struggled for gaining it. She was
also
a good example of weakening in expressing love,
especially to her son George. She wanted
George to live the life that he really liked,
not the way her husband ever told him. But when
they
sat together, the words they said were
always the same. “I thought you had better go out
among
the boys. You were too much indoors”; “I
thought I would take a walk” (Anderson, 2004). The
conversation between them is just like this.
What they say is meaningless. It is not difficult
to see
that language here loses its
communicative function. Though Elizabeth Willard
has so many
words she wants to talk to her
son, the utterances are never spoken out. She can
not find right
words to express her true
feelings. If she communicates well with her son,
maybe she will get
released from her painful
and miserable life. She will not feel so hopeless,
lonely and repressed.
作者 张燕
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
Chapter
Four The Roads to Salvation of the Grotesques
In Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson Sherwood compares
the grotesques as the twisted but
sweetest
apples, which signifies he gives a deep sympathy
for the lonely and miserable life of the
grotesques. But where is the road of the
grotesque leading to salvation?
4.1
Contacting with George Willard
In the novel,
George Willard is a reporter contacting different
townspeople. He has the
chance to know about
the grotesques. In these grotesques’ eyes, George
is an innocent and
promising young man, he can
understand them with compassion and love, and they
are willing to
talk with George so as to find
some comfort and consolation. Their contact with
George reflects
that they are seeking their
roads to salvation.
For a long time, the
grotesques have suffered many blows from various
aspects and their
bodies and minds have become
weak and frail. They withdraw from the noisy
outside world,
healing their broken heart in
their small personal world. But at the bottom of
their heart, they
have the same need of
emotion; even the need is more intense than the
normal people. They are
desperately eager to
communicate with people, to get love and care, and
they long for the life of
ordinary people.
Industrialization deforms them but as the persons
in society, they still want to
adapt to the
world. So they make friends with George who will
not bring them harm. They want
George to be
the bridge of communication with other people.
Their behaviors indicate their
efforts to be a
normal man, to seek salvation. In a sense, George
Willard brings the grotesques
great hope.
In the story “The Teacher”, Kate Swift was an
indifferent and stern person. She was not
very
pretty. Everyone in the town felt there was
something biting and forbidding in her character.
She thought her student George had the gift
for writing. Kate Swift was ablaze with thoughts
of
George Willard. “She thought she had
recognized the spark of the genius and wanted to
blow on
it” (Anderson, 2004). Finally on a
snowy night, she found George and talked with him.
Her
behavior signifies she still holds her
dream and never gives up the pursuit of it.
In “Hand”, the grotesque Wing Biddlebaum
always waited for George’s coming. Through
the
contact and communication with George, he could
get a moment of tranquility and ease.
During
their conversation, Wing Biddlebaum often acted as
the protagonist while George acted
as a
listener and learner. With the young reporter by
the side, he talked excitedly. His low and
trembling voice became shrill and loud. Only
at this moment, Wing Biddlebaum is happy and
free. He finds his dream and shows the true
self. “With a kind of winkle, like a fish returned
to
作者 张燕
第 10页 共13 页
《小镇畸人》人物分析
the brook, he
began to talk” (Anderson, 2004). With persistent
pursuit of dream, he tries to seek
opportunity
to express himself and to find the road to
salvation.
4.2 Running Away of George Willard
George Willard is a special figure in
Winesburg, Ohio, which has been illustrated in
Chapter two. As a newspaper reporter, George
can contact all the people in the town. Through
communicating with the townspeople, he begins
to know about them, understand them, and love
them. He realizes that love and understanding
is the best way to cast off loneliness and
frustration. One must learn to love and try to
know about and understand the other people. His
experience broadens his horizon and let him
gradually grow into a mature man. Different from
other grotesques, George can realize what the
problem is and how to solve it.
In the last
story of the novel “Departure”, George made his
decision bravely. He chose to
leave the
repressing small town whose atmosphere was bad for
personal development physically
and
spiritually. “Departure” told the reader that
George Willard departed with the common
dream
and good will of the town’s people. On the day of
departure, lots of people came to the
railway
station to see him off. Even Will Henderson, who
was lazy and often slept until nine, had
got
out of bed to say goodbye to George. On the
station platform, everyone shook George’s hand.
Gertrude Wilmot, who had never paid any
attention to George before, now came and put out
her
hand. In two words she voiced what
everyone felt “Good luck” (Anderson, 2004). George
Willard’s departure symbolizes the realization
of the common dream of the townspeople,
especially for his mother Elizabeth Willard.
The lonely woman longed for adventures when she
was young, but she had to stay in the gloomy
town and died there. Now her son was able to
escape from the town and restart his new life,
the mother would be satisfied.
To some
extent, George’s departure is the hope of all the
grotesques. They find hope of
salvation in the
young man. George willard is the only one to step
out of the confinement of the
town to find his
road to salvation.
作者 张燕
第 11页 共13 页
《小镇畸人》人物分析
Chapter
Five Conclusion
Anderson Sherwood is an
eminent writer showing great interest in human
life and the
conflict between outside and
inner world. In the book A Writer’s Conception of
Realism,
Anderson declares: “It s very hard to
understand any other human being. It is difficult
to tell
truly the story of another, but it is,
I think, a grand challenge” (Gregory, 1949).
In Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson sets the
background at the small place, the small town
Winesburg. He puts his focus on the common
people as he says in his Hello Towns: “My own
life begins in the house in which I live, It
goes from the street, begins a little to
comprehend the
life of the street, of many
streets, of a town, a city” (Anderson, 1979). For
his created characters,
he shows great
sympathy and understanding. In Winesburg, Ohio,
the grotesques are compared
to the twisted
apples. Although these apples’ surfaces are
blemished, they are the sweetest in the
orchard.
Full of compassion and
understanding, Anderson depicts a panorama of all
the deformed
creatures living in the small
town. He reveals that the changes in the society
do harm to its
people. With this
understanding, we can examine the inevitable
changes of the times, the
abnormal human
relations and emotions, and think the state of
human existence. In a sense,
Winesburg, Ohio
is an epitome of the American life in the early
twentieth century. The analysis
of the
grotesques in the book can help us further
understand Anderson, his times and his work. In
the modern society, people are stimulated by
materials. Compared with the grotesques in the
novel, the modern people are lonelier, more
desperate for spiritual life and need more
communication and love. So analyzing the
characters in Winesburg, Ohio has some modern
sense more or less.
We live in a rapidly
changing society in which industrialization and
mechanization can be
sensed everywhere. Each
man who lives in this society will consider these
grotesques as the
close friends as well as a
mirror of us. Through them, we can see the shadowy
aspects of our
character. As far as 1 am
concerned, people should show enough respect to
them, not only
sympathy. Their grotesqueness,
no matter what kind and in what way it is
expressed out, is at
least the potential
aspects that exist in our body and soul.
Therefore, Anderson’s Winesburg,
Ohio is a
marvelous book which is not only a record of human
experience but a representation of
universal
humanity.
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《小镇畸人》人物分析
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