Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village Dr ...

Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio: The Individual in the Village
In Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson reflects on his youthful
experiences in a small society that is undergoing change. He writes about
the village at a pre-motor time and portrays this society lyrically infusing
his work with warm feelings towards the village and its people. A major
feature of Winesburg is its small size. Its population forms a social group
where individuals are aware of their position and the relationship that
exists between the individual and the social group. Anderson portrays
social settings that were changing in the rural Midwestern villages of the
late ١٩th century /early twentieth century. However, the major concern
of the Winesburg stories lies in the characters. Interestingly, the basic
issue discussed in the book, individualism, has drawn some critical
attention since it is one of the most highly prized qualities in American
culture. I believe that Anderson portrays individuals suffering from an
extreme emphasis on individualism that has made them unhappy
grotesques. The weight put on individualism brings them unhappiness.
They lack fulfillment, feel separate, lonely, and unable to communicate.
Although the book talks about the village before WWI, it was
written during the devastation of the war that changed the way the
citizens of the western world thought of themselves and their place in the
universe. If the possibility for an individual to make a mark on the world
existed and heroism and acts of valor were thought to be possible before
the war, the general breakdown of these notions by the war left many
thinking of their landscape as a “wasteland.” It is through the prism or
retrospect that Winesburg shows that the people of the village, the solid
bedrock of American culture, have been losing the pastoral tranquility
afforded by common values and shared outlooks on life. The emphasis
on the infectious and ebullient individualism of Emerson, Thoreau, and
Whitman appear to have twisted and thwarted Man’s ability to be
effective fulfilled individuals capable of meaningful thought and action.
Winesburg, Ohio was warmly received when it appeared in ١٩١٩
and its writer was hailed as a fresh new voice, and a rebel. The book was
seen as showing Anderson to belong to the group of writers who
criticized life in the villages of the Midwest (Blankenship ٦٥٦). The
book received a good share of attention and analysis that according to
Walter Rideout has fluctuated from one decade to another in the twentieth
century. Anderson was first looked at as a rebel to be praised, then a
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