The Cause of Isolation in Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (Essay Sample)

Why do people keep secrets? We keep secrets to protect ourselves from those we know will end up rejecting us. However, when we choose to hide away the things we don’t want others to see, we risk being isolated. This is the dilemma many characters in Winesburg Ohio by Sherwood Anderson face. Many citizens of the town face severe loneliness and are unable to share their struggles with others. Throughout the book, the reader will question why these people are so lonely. Is the town causing the loneliness of its citizens or are the citizens responsible for their own loneliness by isolating themselves? So what is the root cause of their isolation? While most of the town’s citizens choose to remain where they are, ultimately Winesburg is causing the loneliness of its citizens by socially rejecting them.

Front the beginning of the book, Sherwood Anderson reveals how the town is isolating it’s citizens. Introduced in the story Hands, Wing Biddlebaum is one of the victims to this isolation. Wing Biddlebaum used to be known as Adolph Myers back when he was a school teacher in Pennsylvaia. While talking to his students, he would often touch them with his hands. His hands were his natural way of communicating. Eventually, one student accuses him of molestation. He was forced out of Pennsylvania and moved to Winesburg under the name Wing Biddlebaum. However, Winesburg wasn’t the safe haven he thought it was. One day, a group of people walking home from work bully Biddlebaum saying he should comb his hair although he is bald. This example shows how the people of the town isolate Biddlebaum and treat him as an outsider. This evidence is upheld when the narrator says “Wing Biddlebaum…did not think himself as in any way a part of the life of the town where he had lived for twenty years.” Wing Biddlebaum can’t open up to anyone because he fears social rejection which he has every reason to believe will happen. Furthermore, Wing Biddlebaum hides his way of communicating, his hands. He conceals his hands even in Winesburg because he can’t trust the town making him feel isolated and lonely. Wing Biddlebaum is a perfect example to highlight how the town is causing the isolation of its people.

Anderson also points out the exclusivity of the town with the story Queer. The story revolves around Elmer Cowley who is new to Winesburg. The town sees the Cowley family as strange. This makes Elmer very paranoid during his interactions with the town. In one of these interactions, Elmer says, “In the evening, there in town, I go to the post office or to the depot to see the train come in, and no one says nothing to me. Everyone stands around and laughs and talk but they say nothing to me. Then I feel so queer that I can’t talk either. I go away. I don’t say anything. I can’t.” Similar to Biddlebaum, Elmer doesn’t like his treatment in the town and finds it better to be separated from them. Anderson higlights the confing nature of Winesburg toward those that seem strange and that they don’t know. While Elmer wants to isolate himself from the people of Winesburg, he doesn’t want to be alone. After experiencing the isolation of Winesburg, Elmer begins to reflect upon how he would benefit from leaving the town. In this the narrator desbcribes how Elmer’s life could improve if he left the town saying “Then he could talk and laugh. He would no longer be queer and would make friends. Life would begin to have warmth and meaning for him as it had for others.” Elmer’s life would improve so much from leaving the town, which proves that the cause of his isolation was the town. 

One might argue that the cause of the isolation of much of Winesburg’s citizens are of their own doing and that if they would just communicate with another person about their struggles they wouldn’t feel so alone. However most of these characters talk to George Willard, the town’s news reporter, and after the conversations their lives are unaffected. One example of this, is Enoch Robinson who is a lonely artist but lets himself be vulnerable to George Willard and tells him his life story. However, by the end of it his life didn’t improve. “George Willard turned and went out of Enoch Robinson’s room…as he went through the door, he could hear the thin old voice whimpering, ‘I’m alone, all alone here,’ said the voice. ‘It was warm and friendly in my room but now I’m all alone.’” After talking to George, none of his problems have resolved which means that his problem can’t be fixed by mere individuals. This proves that the source of George’s isolation is something bigger, the town.

Winesburg caused the isolation of many of its citizens which much of small town life can do. If you are put in a situation like the people of Winesburg it may seem hopeless, but it is more important to keep in mind that just because you feel isolated within a community, it does not mean that you are doomed to a life of loneliness. A few of Winesburgs characters were able to break free and they were often the people that were most isolated. In the example of Elmer Cowley, he left Winesburg and was no longer in that abusive relationship. Sometimes when there seems to be no way out, the right decision is often just the most difficult one to make.

Bibliography

Anderson, Sherwood, and Glen A. Love. Winesburg, Ohio. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Print.