Creating Mood In Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio

Loneliness is one of many central themes in John Steinbeck’s classic novella, Of Mice and Men. Throughout the story many characters sought after the company and attention of others. Each character has a certain barrier that keeps them isolated from the outside world. Three characters who portray this loneliness throughout the novella are Crooks, Curly’s wife, and Candy. Each having a different wall between them and society.

People are considered to be social beings, yet, again and again, they seek to falsify the claims of civility, and show themselves as the detached individuals they tend to be. In his novella, “Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck designed several faulty pairings that display the true disparity and detachment that are proven to be a part of every relationship in the story. Through the associations of the main characters, Lennie and George, along with several other characters within the narrative, Steinbeck exposes the root of 1930’s relationships in promises, loneliness, and a basic need for companionship, rather than any true fondness- a junction that can easily be nullified.

Solidifying the theme of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the protagonist George expresses his significant loneliness despite a strong kinship with his friend Lennie, “’I ain’t got no people… I seen the guys that go around the ranches alone. That ain’t no good’” (41). Published in 1937, amidst the horrific turmoil of the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s novella struck a sensitive chord with readers. Set in the heart of California’s Central Valley, this story follows two men, George and Lennie, as they run from old shadows to a new farm for work. Clinging to the distant dream of owning their own piece of land, the men imagine life outside their present difficulties. Illustrating that life is varied by emotional complexities beyond black and white, George’s longing for companionship and family seep through in conversations with his new co-worker Slim. Despite Lennie’s sheer physical strength, his mental abilities are limited to that of a naïve, innocent, and very young boy; the result is a relationship akin to an uncle and nephew. Lennie, with primal-like behaviors and a gold-fish memory, struggles to adhere to George’s words of wisdom. In the end, tragedy strikes them both as George is forced to kill Lennie due to an accident with the son of the landowner’s wife – a woman who looks for trouble at the onset. Consequently, George’s state of loneliness is bequeathed to a new level as he begins to imagine life without Lennie in tow.

“But, I 'm already resigned to this fate / Looking over my life, I recall / If it hadn 't been / for the loneliness / I 'd have no companion at all. ” This stanza from “Loneliness”, by Lora Colon evokes the negative impact a lonely fate has on a person. Words like “resigned” and “loneliness” establish a sense of depression and resignation. During the times of the Great Depression, many people felt similar feelings of melancholy and stoicism. Jobs were hard to come by, and realistic dreams of success were scarce. John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, allows readers to see the life of the Great Depression. The two main characters, George and Lennie, search for jobs, like many other migrant workers. They dream of owning their own land, however, Lennie’s habit of getting in trouble prevents their dream from being reality. After he accidentally causes more trouble at their new job, George is forced to kill him out of mercy. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck shows that even if one meticulously plans out the road to their American Dream, fate will inevitably intervene and lead one to desolation and loneliness.

In a society of people all in the same situations how can someone feel so alone. When lives fall apart and people have nothing to hold on to people need each other most, yet are pushed so far from others. The novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, follows the storyline of two men who are displaced farm workers during the Great Depression; they travel around and stick by each other’s sides no matter the circumstance. After many jobs they end up on a farm,the farm they hope will be their last stop. The time spent on the farm is filled with blooming friendships and careless quarrels, yet with an abundance of characters and entertainment- many people on the farm feel alone and out of place. Characters such as Crooks and Curley’s wife often come to mind when the subject of loneliness is brought up. Throughout the book using characters such as Crooks and Curley's wife, John Steinbeck demonstrates that humans are immensely impacted by separation from society and it will change the way that people will act and show themselves to others.

When a young author from New York City decides to take a trip to the southern city of Savannah, he finds himself falling in love with the town and ends up renting an apartment. He encounters many different characters, including Danny Hansford and Jim Williams, that gives the reader a good look into the aura of Savannah. The main conflict in the book occurs when a murder happens in an old mansion located in the town. The book follows the progression of the trial and the outcome following the court’s decision.

‘..Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world they got no family they don’t belong no place.’ This is what many felt during the ‘great depression’ in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck gives us the sense that many felt lonely ‘they got no family they don’t belong no place. The main theme of this novel is alienation; the three characters, Curley’s wife, candy, and crooks are all alienated, and felt it by another person at some point. They all have dreams... it’s the American dream... but not all dreams come true...

John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, takes place during the Great Depression in the 1930’s, in the Salinas Valley, California. It establishes the prospect of the American Dream, discrimination,loneliness, and disenfranchisement through its characters. George and Lennie provided the value of the American Dream, to which the leading female role, Curley’s wife, represents how women are exempt from the American Dream, and appeared as less than equal to men. She developed a form of loneliness throughout the course of the novel. The novella seeks to demonstrate the way of which life was like for the characters of all different statuses and backgrounds. Through Curley’s wife’s character, we are able to see how life was like for a women during

During the Great Depression, it was not uncommon to become morosely secluded while working. Men would go far away from their families in search of any jobs they could get, with only themselves to confide in; colleagues only filling in the void of friends and family partially. Naturally, John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, written during this period, would reflect this fact as a major aspect of the story. Loneliness would become the sinew of Of Mice and Men, manifested in some of the story’s main characters: Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife. These allusions to loneliness are found throughout the book, mimicking the rampant disease of isolation at the time.

serious,” yet finds her situation “dreadfully depressing.” At this point it is evident that she is concerned her case is critical. Whilst she is already depressed, the adjective “depressing” indicates here stronger thoughts than simply those from a bad day. The narrator later in the story

     Written by Sherwood Anderson in 1919, Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of short stories, allows us to enter the alternately complex, lonely, joyful, and strange lives of the inhabitants of the small town of Winesburg, Ohio. While each character finds definition through their role in the community, we are witness to the individual struggle each faces in trying to reconcile their secret life within. A perfect example of two characters are Alice Hindman and Enoch Robinson. The loneliness and illusion that encompass the lives of Alice Hindman and Enoch Robinson are the result of the discrepancy between their own capacity for intimacy and affection and the inability of others to truly understand them.

“the ‘material’ of the modern grotesque is present in these [previous] works; but it is not successfully integrated with the ‘telling’ of it” (15). It is a stimulating process, somewhat a journey for Anderson; from Marching Men with its hostility towards society and condemnation of industrialism to the discovery of the ubiquitous nature of loneliness self-evident upon reading the first pages of Winesburg, Ohio. He acquired understanding of loneliness, not through analysis, fighting and the final rejection of modern society’s standards expressed in Marching Men and Windy McPherson’s Son, but rather through empathy; on the more intuitive and compassionate level, radiating through Winesburg, Ohio, which is made clear just after reading the prologue-like

Let’s say an author wrote a story about you, a memoir to be exact. Even more specific, the inevitable “coming of age” stage when one finds themselves. If this was your story, why should someone argue it isn’t? Winesburg, Ohio is a novel by Sherwood Anderson. Absolutely not a collection of stories. A work of non-fiction and read by yours truly, the novel depicts the dynamic progression George Willard endures. Merely a boy-man with an ambitious view for his writing career. Many will argue Winesburg is a collection of stories; however, these stories cannot possibly expel the coming of age protagonist George Willard undergoes during the short time frame.

The average person from suburban America can be either valiant, pathetic, or both. This is the description of an American suburbanite according to John Cheever, an American novelist and short story writer during the fifties, sixties, and seventies. Cheever, an award winning writer, balances hope, uncertainty, and anxiety in his stories’ characters. In Cheever’s “The Swimmer”, the main character, Neddy Merrill, incorporates this description into his actions. The actions of Neddy Merrill can be compared to those of Francis Weed, the main character of Cheever’s “The Country Husband”. “The Swimmer” and “The Country Husband”, however different the plots of each may be, each analyze the suburban

Bort, in his essay “Winesburg, Ohio: The Escape from Isolation,” briefly examines the characters in many of the short stories included in Winesburg as they fail to both understand each other and to connect with other members of the town. Working chronologically, Bort specifically mentions: “The Book of the Grotesques,” “Hands,” “Paper Pills,” “Godliness,” “Adventure,” and “Tandy” pointing to their contribution to the major themes of Winesburg, Ohio. He begins his analysis comparing “Hands” and “Paper Pills” as he asserts that their relationship is central to Anderson’s message. He applies each example to this pair of stories with opposing representations of isolation, and in the end, relates the structure and content of the collection of stories to his conclusion about the true nature of the book being the description of what Anderson calls “significant moments.”