Anderson's Town, Su Tong's Street: Worlds Of Beauty And Ugliness

Sherwood Anderson's town of Winesburg, Ohio and Su Tong's Fragrant Street are two literary creations haunted by grotesqueness, loneliness and hopelessness. Outwardly, both miniature worlds are ugly; I, however, argue that Anderson's depiction of ugliness is a means to pursue beauty, i.e., ugliness for the sake of beauty, while Su's is ugliness for the sake of ugliness. This is the central idea of the present thesis, which is specifically reflected in the grotesques in each place, the various aspects of life in the two communities and whether its creator harbors hope for the neighborhood created and the world in general.Anderson's grotesques are extraordinary individuals who suffer loneliness but make themselves tragically beautiful, who are either respectable or adorable besides being pathetic, and on whom the creator places a great deal of sympathy and understanding, while their counterparts on Fragrant Street are pitiful at best, most of whom are hateful earthly people, portrayed by Su Tong with detachment to reveal dark human nature.A depressing town on the surface, the various aspects of life in Winesburg, Ohio-the farm life, love, sex, art, order, etc.-are in fact beautiful or promising. Fragrant Street, in contrast, is a locale that harbors vulgarity and violence, but tolerates no fineness or tenderness. Shattered dreams, rape, adultery and the corruption of order reign the street. What's more, the environment of the street is repulsive. In Wineburg, Ohio, however, nature or natural scenery is beautiful and charged with encouraging power for one to express himself, to be himself, and to seek a better life.Anderson harbors hope for the town and America, who believes that a reviving past and its enduring values, faith in land and the power of the self guarantee a hopeful world moving forward, where youngsters grow smoothly into adulthood. But Su Tong deems comfort and joy in life as temporal while sorrow and pain ever-lasting. In his stories, the juveniles never get a chance to cross the line into manhood. In addition, he seems to suggest that there is a vicious circle continuing from generation to generation; there is no escape, no hope.The art of ugliness highlights the undesirable side of humanity, through which sound judgments are cherished. Both Anderson and Su Tong write about ugliness, but in reality what they care about are the plights facing mankind, showing deep concern over the living conditions of mankind.