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

Damascus University Journal, Vol.٢٠, No. (١+٢), ٢٠٠٤
Kutrieh
Ahmad Ramez
Most of the characters of Winesburg have trouble communicating
with others. Several critics have mentioned the fact that the characters of
Winesburg seek out George Willard to tell him their stories.٥ This
narrative device allows the readers to hear the inner thoughts of the
characters as they confide in George. Since George is the journalist who
wants to become a writer, it is often assumed that he represents young
Sherwood before leaving his little Ohio town for Chicago, as does
George at the end of the book.٦ George is always roaming the streets as
a reporter looking for news to publish in the town paper. It seems natural
for him to be the one to listen to the stories of the characters. But some
of the characters have trouble speaking even to him. Moments of
awkward silence are evident several times in several stories.
Elizabeth Willard, George's mother, is unable to express her wishes
and dreams to her son. In "Mother," the reader is told, "The communion
between George Willard and his mother was outwardly a formal thing
without meaning”(٢٦). "In the evening when the son sat in the room with
his mother, the silence made them both feel awkward”(٢٨). When they
talk later in the story he tells her, "I suppose I can't make you understand,
but oh, I wish I could." When he tells her that he wants to leave
Winesburg, she wanted to express herself by crying with joy but could
not accomplish that form of non-verbal communication. Again, silence
becomes unbearable to her. To manage the moment, she sends him
outdoors among the boys(٣٧). When she dies, close to the end of the
book, she had not been able to tell him about her hidden money, money
that could improve her son's life and take him away from her husband.
Nilsen Gokcen’s argument in his dissertation is that the characters of
Winesburg strive to break the barriers between them and others but there
is a lack of communication and as a result self-fulfillment is never
completed.
The difficulty to communicate faced by Anderson's characters
highlights the way they relate to their community. They are separate,
think differently from others, and have their own separate dreams, a
pattern that has its mark on them all. They match each other in being out
of harmony with the society of the Midwestern village. This situation of
Anderson's characters would seem even more pronounced if his treatment
of them is compared with that of other writers' characters who are placed
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