A Critical Study Of The "Grotesque" Characters In Winesburg, Ohio

As an outstanding short-story cycle of American writer Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio is a modern American expression of the "wasteland" theme. It consists of twenty-five separate ones including an opening sketch, yet with a unifying theme and a seeming "hero", George Willard. This paper is to analyze the "grotesque" characters from a modernist perspective, with special reference to the philosophy of the French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre.Winesburg, Ohio sets forth Anderson's notion of "grotesque". He suggests that the "truths" people have seized upon make them grotesque and shows his sympathy for the grotesques' severe desire for understanding and love. Among the grotesques exists the definite difficulty of communication, namely, the inability to communicate feeling, thought, and love. Some of them are severely attacked by the morality of the average, the result of which fosters their insecurity and fear of expressing their feelings; some take non-involvement in life due to the timidity and weakness of their characters and consequently become hesitant to express thought; and some are pressed by certain social conventionalities, which go against their real nature and set them in low spirits unable to communicate their love through words or actions. The grotesque townspeople usually turn to George Willard, the young reporter, not only for the individual release of a sudden expressive outburst, but also for a relation with each other that may restore them to collective harmony. As for George, he proves to be both a grotesque entrapped in an existential plight and an ungrotesque with his spiritual changes in listening to his fellow outcasts, viewing his mother, dealing with romance and realizing his amount of power.