An Interpretation Of Winesburg, Ohio From The Perspective Of Symbolism

Sherwood Anderson, as a very outstanding writer in American modern literature, whose novels have caught the great attention of many critics and scholars, has exerted great influences on such successors over the past centuries as William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway and F. S. Fitzergerald, who are the famous representatives of American modernism. Among all his works, Winesburg, Ohio is considered as Anderson’s most successful work.This novel has been interpreted from many different perspectives since its publication. However, people haven’t paid much attention to the symbolism used in the novel. This thesis attempts to give a symbolic interpretation of Sherwood Anderson’s masterpiece Winesburg, Ohio in order to present the frustration and isolation of the people in America in the late nineteenth century when the whole society was turning from agrarian to industrial one. People in the transitional period suffer from loneliness and isolation and they long for communication, understanding, love and merging into that society.This thesis consists of three parts.The first part provides an introduction which deals with a survey of previous researches of Sherwood Anderson and why the author of the thesis chooses this topic.The second part is the body of the thesis which includes four chapters. Chapter One gives an account of symbolism and symbolism in Winesburg, Ohio. Through exploring Winesburg as a mirror of the society, the author invites the readers to have a look at the real society in the US industrial transition and people’s inner loneliness and desire for communication. Chapter Two concentrates on the symbolic interpretation of settings including locations, time and weather of these stories which imply the depression and loneliness of the grotesques in the small town. Chapter Three focuses on the symbolic interpretation of characters----males and females. Three male characters are discussed. Enoch Robinson, the young artist, suffers inability of expressing his opinions on his works and his desire of communication can only be fulfilled when he lives alone with his imaginary friends in a narrow room in Washington. He is a symbol of the people living in the industrial turn who are still immersed in the pastoral life and cannot integrate themselves into the new trend in the society. Jesse Bentley is a Christian. He has been deserted by his family members gradually in his excessive and greedy pursuit of money in the transitional period. He falls into a state of loneliness. Jesse is a symbol of clash between wealth and belief. George Willard, the reporter, also desires for communication, love and understanding. With the connections of those lonely grotesques he changes from a nai’ve, arrogant boy to a real man. George symbolizes the new force in the transitional period. In terms of female characters, Alice Hindman, Elizabeth Willard and Kate Swift are presented in the paper. These women symbolize the feminine struggle with isolation and loneliness and desire for understanding, love and communication. Chapter Four explores the symbolic meaning of other objects in this novel-----hands, windows, pictures and paper pills, through which readers may feel these grotesques’isolation and eagerness of communication.The last part is the conclusion. Through the symbolic interpretation of the novel, the author of this thesis attempts to show Anderson’s deep concern for human beings’ living condition in the late19th century in US. He attempts to arouse the social attention to human beings’ loneliness and strong desire for communication. People should show their respect to every individual, assume their responsibilities, understand and care for each other, striving to create a harmonious and healthy society.