Sherwood Anderson  Winesburg, Ohio

Small-town America—American Dream gone bust? 

George Willard—a group of short stories that tell Willard’s story—trajectory of set of stories is George leaving Winesburg (what that means symbolically—giving up on the American materialism, small-town life parochialism, provincialism) 

Lost innocence?  Gained something? 

Psychological depth of character—inside as well as outside lives

American Dream: freedom, capitalism, money, happiness, pursuit of happiness, peace, materialism, work hard, fast-paced, fast food, work hard and you will be rewarded, rags to riches, work, rugged individualism, Horatio Alger stories

Winesburg—loserville, calls into question the very ideology of the Am dream? 

Spoon River—dramatic monologues (short poems like monologues from a play)

Short stories—modernist literature (instead of telling the narrative in a straightforward novel about the coming-of-age of Willard, we get a mosaic approach through various points-of-view and characters)  Will George succeed like a Horatio Alger character or end up with the losers of Winesburg? 

Movies like Crash, Citizen Kane, Usual Suspects

Perspectivism—like Cubism in Art—using more than one perspective, point of view to “get at” the subject—we don’t have a single perspective in “real life”—no “is” (ala Fort), but a shifting flux of consciousness

Perspective in Literature—begins with fiction or Novel in which we “see” a story from a character’s point of view

Modernists play with perspective, pick it apart—who’s the real “George”

“Hands”

Opening of story “In medias res” (in the midst of things) action sequence instead of formal exposition: what we learn from opening paragraphs—nervous, hyper, wants to see George Willard, problem with girls?  What’s his perspective in opening paragraph?  He’s focused on youth  in blue?  Is Wing a pedophile or not?  Has he acted on his passions?  What’s his interest in George?  Does George realize it?

George meets Wing: Wing’s advice to George: live your dreams (be a writer in the big city, don’t stay in Winesburg) he touches George and stops himself   Golden Age of old man and young men on horses? Greek culture/myth—homosexuality never mentioned   Whose perspective do we get from the passage below:

And then the tragedy. A half-witted boy of the school became enamored of the young master. In his bed at night he imagined unspeakable things and in the morning went forth to tell his dreams as facts. Strange, hideous accusations fell from his loosehung lips. Through the Pennsylvania town went a shiver. Hidden, shadowy doubts that had been in men's minds concerning Adolph Myers were galvanized into beliefs.

Do we know what really happened?  Did Wing cross the line between dream and reality? Where is that line?  Ultimately ambiguous . . . .  Story lacks conventional single perspective.  Does Wing consider the boy “half-witted” or where is this word coming from?

Image as priest (celibate yet carnal) connection between carnal and spiritual (tragedy as humans)  Everyone has a different perspective and that perspective changes continually—can he maintain a
“platonic” relationship with George?

What are we to make of Wing and Wing’s relation with George?  His “hands” undo him?  Modernist story: gives facts, symbols and let’s us make up our minds what to make of it—like cubist painting

George’s innocence, beauty and ability to dream (hope)

Mother

Lack of communication with son she loves (like Wing)

Her long hands, white and bloodless,
could be seen drooping over the ends of the arms of the
chair. "I think you had better be out among the boys.
You are too much indoors," she said, striving to
relieve the embarrassment of the departure. "I thought
I would take a walk," replied George Willard, who felt
awkward and confused.

The fact that the conversation
between Tom Willard and his son had been rather quiet
and natural, as though an understanding existed between
them, maddened her. Although for years she had hated
her husband, her hatred had always before been a quite
impersonal thing. He had been merely a part of
something else that she hated. Now, and by the few
words at the door, he had become the thing personified.
In the darkness of her own room she clenched her fists
and glared about. Going to a cloth bag that hung on a
nail by the wall she took out a long pair of sewing
scissors and held them in her hand like a dagger. "I
will stab him," she said aloud. "He has chosen to be
the voice of evil and I will kill him. When I have
killed him something will snap within myself and I will
die also. It will be a release for all of us."

She’s locked in negative emotions, lifelessness, living life through child—we see through her perspective, not “objective” reality (which doesn’t really exist for modernists)