Disillusion Loneliness Escape

Sherwood Anderson is a special literary figure in American literature. His works, especially his short stories, have attracted generations of readers. Many literary giants such as Hemingway, Faulkner and Steinbeck owed a lot to him. There have been many critical essays about his stories: his style, his language and his theme. The fluctuations in critical attitudes toward Anderson make it very difficult to give him an evaluation that everybody would accept. His book of grotesques Winesburg, Ohio has been studied from many perspectives. Anyway, the purpose of this dissertation is not to evaluate his works or himself, but an effort to interpret Anderson from the perspective of the lonely people he has portrayed in his short stories. The collection of short stories, namely Winesburg, Ohio is selected to be studied for this purpose.Anderson's masterpiece Wihesburg, Ohio is hailed as both"a first-rate psychological document"and"a fable of American estrangement". With his sophisticated writing skills, Anderson depicts a picture of a group of grotesques in a small mid-western town in American's transition from rural to industrial society. With his delicate, incisive social perception, he explores the lonely spirits of the small town people who have dropped out of their time. Their souls are twisted by the sharp conflict between their obsessed old beliefs and the new materialism. Thus, they suffer loneliness, frustration and desperation and become"grotesques"in the eyes of the"normal people"who pursue the materialism. By seeing beneath the surface of lives of the grotesques, Anderson finds that alienation is the major social root of the grotesqueness in the small town people. And also finds the inner causes of the lonely souls. He points out the ways to runaway from the backward small town.As what concerned Anderson is the inner life of his characters in the small American Midwestern towns, their loneliness manifested through their efforts to communicate became particularly important. The lonely, or emotionally crippled souls, are analyzed through their appearance, their inability to communicate, their hands, eyes and their violent motions.This thesis is composed of four parts. The Introduction describes the theoretical basis and the survey of the critical modes of the thesis.Chapter One gives a general view of Freudian Psychoanalysis of Winesburg, Ohio. This chapter is made up of two sections. The first section analyzes the theory of Oedipus Complex and sex. The second section discusses the influences of Freudianism on Sherwood Anderson's works.Chapter Two is made up of four sections. The four sections give detailed discussion on four different types of lonely souls, with emphasis on their grotesqueness.Chapter Three discusses alienation as the major social root of the grotesqueness, and Wihesburg, Ohio as a microcosm of the American small town life. And also emphasizes the psychological and inner reasons of the lonely souls.Chapter four deals the ways to escape from loneliness. There are three ways for the lonely souls to escape from loneliness.At the beginning of the novel, Wing Biddlebaum and other abnormal people retreated from the society and escaped to Winesburg. At the end of the novel, George left Winesburg, taking the dream that they had been pursuing but failed, and rejoined the society. This is also a picture of the life of Anderson himself: he left the society as a businessman; and he rejoined the society, with the success in literature world of the novel Winesburg, Ohio. He embodied the cultural orbit of Americans, with a typical American flavor.The ending draws a conclusion of the whole thesis and reveals Anderson's writing motivation.