On Women Characters' Influence On The Growth Of George Willard In Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson was one of the greatest craftsmen in American literature, whose influence was to be recognized in many younger writers in the twentieth century, among whom were Earnest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Some of his works were rebuked in the 1930's, yet with the pioneering style and the variety of themes, his works are now well-acknowledged to be among the earliest modern classical writings in the twentieth century. With the publication of Winesburg, Ohio in 1919, the man actually reached the peak in his literary career. Winesburg, Ohio is subtitled The Book of Grotesques, which suggests the essential quality of the book---the condition of isolation and failed communication. Anderson explored the collective confusion in the transitional age and lamented on the loss of the old pastoral quietude, and the general tone of the narration is a gloom one; yet still he cherished the faith in the future and people's ability to grow.This paper is a study on the protagonist's process of maturation and status of the women characters in it. Winesburg, Ohio is taken to be a novel of the bildungsroman tradition by some critics, and as tradition goes, a young man's growth can not be achieved without the involvement of the opposite gender. In the book, George Willard underwent the painful transformation from an ego-centric boy to a sensitive and caring young adult with the potential to be a writer in the future. During this process, the mother Elizabeth Willard, the school teacher Kate Swift, together with the town's young girls whom George got involved with, namely, Louise Trunnion, Belle Carpenter and Helen White, have asserted positive influence on his mind. The young man's maturity was finally manifested in his ability to examine his past life, his correct recognition of "maleness" and the right attitude towards his dream of becoming a writer. Either as spiritual mentors or sources of inspiration, contact with those women has eventually led to George Willard's growth. In the last story "Departure", the young man left the town of Winesburg for the metropolis Chicago, which symbolized a different fate and the strength to take control of one's own life. The present paper helps to understand Sherwood Anderson from a more sentimentalist perspective and contributes to Anderson scholarship.