Abstract

    Winesburg, Ohio, a masterpiece of Sherwood Anderson, describes a set of grotesques living in a small town in Midwest America. This paper elaborates on Sherwood Anderson’s idea that one cannot be redeemed from loneliness and isolation by the touch. The paper begins with the exploration of the reason why it is vital to pay attention to “hands” and appreciates the symbolizations of “hands” in Winesburg, Ohio. Then it focuses on the analysis of “touches” , the particular action of “hands”, and ends with the conclusion that “touches” cannot redeem those grotesques but leads to new grotesques.

Key words: hands, touch, grotesques, symbolization,communication

摘 要

《小镇畸人》是舍伍德•安德森的杰作，描述了美国中西部一个小镇中的一群畸人。本文阐述了舍伍德•安德森触摸不可救赎的观点，即触摸无法将畸人们从孤寂和孤立中救赎出。首先，本文探讨了着眼于“手”的原因并赏析了《小镇畸人》中“手”的象征意。接着本文重点分析了由“手”发出的特有的动作“触摸”并得出结论“触摸”不但无法使畸人获得救赎，反而导致新畸人的产生。

关键词：手；触摸；畸人；象征；沟通
 
1.Introduction
Sherwood Anderson is one of the most significant writers in 1920s. He made friends with many aspiring writers like William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and offered writing guidance to them. Malcolm Cowley revered Anderson as “a writer’s writer” (Ferres 345). In 1922 Anderson won the first in Dial Prize followed by T. S Eliot who won the second and Winesburg, Ohio is the very reason why Anderson was entitled to such an honor.
Sherwood Anderson, the second son in a family of six children, was raised in the small town of Clyde, Ohio which provided him with valuable materials for his later literature career and served as the original model for A New Book of Grotesque, which was later renamed into Winesburg, Ohio. Winesburg, Ohio was a collection of twenty-five short stories depicting a group of grotesques who were desperate for mutual understanding and communication but end up in loneliness and isolation. Each story focused on a specific inhabitant trapped in his own problem. Most stories followed the recurrent pattern in which the grotesques had their own trouble and tried to unpack their hearts but end in failure, then they would turn to George Willard, the young reporter who has not become a grotesque and was considered as the real spirit of the town.