Abstract

Winesburg, Ohio, one of Anderson’s great works, deals with the spiritual crisis experienced by the people in extreme isolation in a Midwest town in Winesburg. This paper studies the employment of symbols in short stories collected in Winesburg, Ohio, with the focus on how these symbols help express one of the major themes of these short stories: human destruction and alienation caused by industrial civilization.

Key words: Sherwood Anderson; Winesburg, Ohio; symbols; alienation

摘 要

《小城畸人》是美国著名小说家舍伍德•安德森的一部杰出作品，讲述了温士堡小镇居民所经历的精神磨难以及由此带来的异化。本论文探讨了作品中象征手法的运用，并重点介绍了各象征意象如何帮助表达作品主题——工业文明对人类的摧残和异化。

关键词：舍伍德 •安德森；《小城畸人》；象征；异化

1. Introduction
Born on September 13, 1876, in Camden, Preble County, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson was a pioneer writer, mainly of short stories. In 1916 he began to publish novels, and later became a professional writer. He had created manly great works such as Windy McPherson's Son, Marching Men, Death in the Woods and Other Stories. His short stories received much attention; some of the later modernist writers have a certain impact. And Winesburg, Ohio is the most famous collection. That work's influence on American fiction was profound, and its literary voice can be heard in Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell and others.