Thursday, September 19, 2019
Isolation in Winesburg Ohio and Death in The Woods Essay -- Winesburg
Isolation in Winesburg Ohio and Death in The Woods In 1919, Sherwood Anderson composed his work Winesburg Ohio, which depicts the inner lives of small-town America. Andersonââ¬â¢s fascination to explore whatââ¬â¢s beneath the surface of human lives results in another story in 1933 called ââ¬Å"Death In The Woodsâ⬠. These two works, incidentally, share a common theme of isolation. The characters in these works, are portrayed as ââ¬Å"grotesquesâ⬠or people who live their lives by one truth, thus living a life of falsehood and isolation from the rest of the world. This essay will examine the theme of isolation in the two works described, and will also relate it to Andersonââ¬â¢s idea of the ââ¬Å"grotesqueâ⬠. In Winesburg Ohio, the reader is first introduced to ââ¬Å"The Book of the Grotesqueâ⬠. This introductory chapter, provides the reader with what might be considered a summary of the characters in the novel itself. The elderly writer, who has obviously seen and experienced a lot of the worldââ¬â¢s turmoils, e.g. The Civil War , has been haunted by the faces of all the people he has ever known. The faces of these people are twisted and distorted, and ultimately appear ââ¬Å"grotesqueâ⬠to the elderly writer: 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.â⬠(p.24). In relation to the theme of isolation in this novel, Anderson uses this chapter to illustrate how the characters in the town of Winesburg should be perceived. Characters that are ââ¬Å"grotesqueâ⬠because they live their lives by a single ââ¬Å"truthâ⬠that prevents them from maturing, developing, and ultimately growing into what Anderson... ... world in which he lives. On this journey, he encounters many ââ¬Å"grotesquesâ⬠or distorted examples of human life, that enable George to break free from the isolation of Winesburg and venture out to live the life of what Anderson would consider to be ââ¬Å"normalâ⬠. In Georgeââ¬â¢s case, the isolation leads to creation, whereas in the townspeople, it leads to self-destruction. The story of ââ¬Å"Ghost In The Woodsâ⬠is in itself, a modified, shorter version of Winesburg due to itsââ¬â¢ narrator, an introspective man, desolate and lonely who questions the meaning of his world. In conclusion, the two works examined in this essay provide concrete evidence in support of Andersonââ¬â¢s view on isolation and the ââ¬Å"grotesqueâ⬠. He uses his ââ¬Å"grotesquesâ⬠, who essentially are isolated, to enable his main characters to question the purpose of life and examine the world beyond their immediate surroundings.
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