The Theme Of Alienation In Winesburg, Ohio

As one of the pioneers in modern American literary canon, Sherwood Anderson cares considerably about people's living state in modern society. Winesburg, Ohio, his most significant work in probing individual's alienation and isolation, is considered a masterpiece of the twentieth century. Deemed as a fable of American estrangement, it depicts the stunted, fragmentary nature of various townsfolk'lives. The grotesque is perceived as a characteristic of the alienation fostered by a modern, industrial age. Numerous critics have made great researches on it from different perspectives, such as the psychological analysis, the modernist aesthetics and the bildungsroman. Also, the studies on the theme of alienation in this novel are quite popular.Aiming at revealing the issue of alienation which is still of interest in our postmodern, information age and attracting people's attention to the issue of alienation, this thesis applies the theory of alienation of both Marxism and existentialism to the studies of alienation in Winesburg, thus opening a door to the future researchers.This thesis is composed of the introduction, the body and the conclusion. In the introductory part, the focus is on the life of Sherwood Anderson, the previous researches on Winesburg, Ohio and the theories on alienation.The body consists of three chapters. Chapter One discusses the alienation from the self from the perspective of bad faith and failure of transcendence. People who live in accordance with bad faith are liable to give up their authenticity and be alienated with themselves. Submission to the social codes, religious belief, illusion and distorted memory about past in Winesburg, Ohio are the embodiments of bad faith. Chapter Two explores the alienation from the other by displaying the influence of the Look of the other on the individual and the cold relationship between different sexes due to the male's misinterpretation of the female's emotional request. Chapter Three demonstrates the alienation from the outside world by analyzing the loss of identity as well as the reason for separation with the outside world, namely, the disability and refusal to interact with the outside world. The conclusion discusses the meaning of the research.