An Analysis Of Grotesques In Winesburg,Ohio

Winesburg, Ohio is a master and well-known work of the famous American novelist Sherwood Anderson who lived in the end of19th century and early20th century. Tn this work, Sherwood Anderson describes the distinctive literature characters "grotesques". Through the careful observation, he penetrates into the inner world of the town residents who experienced the process of industrialization in The Midwestern United. He shows their experiences of love and hate, their spiritual exploration and quest. He expresses their empty, loss, confusion and even distortion, alienation. In the same time, he shows the application of grotesque which is a kind of art style and technique of expression in literature. The paper tries to unscramble a series of grotesques in Winesburg, Ohio, discussing the characteristics, cause, out way and the unique aesthetic value of them. It will analyze the actual application of "grotesque" in this novel, and elaborate Anderson’s care and reflection to the living and mental conditions of people who lived in a period of change. It is not only very valuable to the literature research, but also has a common humanistic value and social moral significance. It provides some kind of inspiration and reference to China’s central and western towns which are being in the process of modern industrialization now. The paper is divided into four chapters to elaborate:The first chapter, points out that the "grotesques" in Winesburg, Ohio are the grotesques in the literature research. It introduces the origin, translation, development of the grotesque in Chinese and western literature works and theory researches, showing that how the grotesque developed from a simple art style to a system theory. It elaborates the main features of the grotesque and grotesques in the literature through a serious unscrambling summary.The second chapter, combining with the common characteristics of grotesques in literature, analyzes concretely the grotesques in the novel. It expounds mainly from five areas, the ugly strange appearance characteristics, the comical funny languages and dialogues, the exaggerative abnormal behaviors, the fantasy and eccentric spirit worlds, and the distorted unharmonious character relationships. Although there are some differences in the main characteristic of different grotesques, this novel almost covers all the expression techniques to depict the grotesques.The third chapter, under the historical background, penetrates into the inner world of the grotesques, discusses concretely about causes and out ways of grotesques. Through this, it will be easy for us to understand grotesques deeply and grasp the meaning and value of the "grotesque" in the literature. In the first section, it analyzes the changes and influences which the industrialization brought to small towns in The Midwestern United, discusses the fetters that traditional religious belief and moral ideal brought to grotesques, it points out the oppression and closing of grotesques, and elaborates the paradox proposition between the truths and vain reflected in the novel. In the second section, it discusses the out way of grotesques. About this, Anderson didn’t give us a definite answer. Sticking to loneliness, waiting for death and escaping from the town are the usual choices of grotesques in the novel.The forth chapter, talks about the aesthetic value of grotesques. It reveals the beauty and sincerity of grotesques which are covered by the ugliness and grotesque, and discusses the important enlightenment significance of grotesques’ tragic fate. It points out that the significant meaning of the grotesques in Anderson’s novels lying in studying the industrialization in The Midwestern United, in enriching the grotesque literature creation, and in promoting the inheritance of literature and the development of modernist literature in America.