preview

Winesburg Ohio Critical Analysis Essay

Good Essays

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. …show more content…

Alice holds on to Ned and his promised love, even though was full of illusions, as an absolute truth.
“I want to avoid being so much alone. If I am not careful I will grow unaccustomed to being around people.” (Anderson 118). Thus she joins new groups and attempts to recreate ties to her community. However, she is unable to pass beyond her limiting life-denying truth. A perfect example of this is not even considering any type of relationship with Will Hurley, who she had met at a Church group. Alice reaches the point of loneliness by the end which had been described in the beginning because, regardless of her attempts to move on, her search from communal bonds and humanity had been “fruitless”.
In the short story, “Loneliness”, Enoch Robinson also lives a life of illusions and loneliness. “The story of Enoch is in fact the story of a room almost more than it is the story of a man.” (Anderson 168). The room and its inhabitants are applied to Enoch and his mysterious, illusional character. As Enoch grew up in Winesburg, his mother’s house lay dark because all the window blinds were kept closed. Enoch was described as a quiet, dense child. Enoch’s home symbolizes his personality and his outlook toward others. Enoch would walk top school with his nose in a book, not seeing the passing traffic. The darkness of his home is reflected in his character. As Enoch moves to New

Get Access