Living in Ohio for the majority of his life, Sherwood Anderson based many of his stories on city life in Ohio. Anderson’s short stories were influenced by not only his surroundings, but also by his life-shaping events that occurred in his youth. Throughout the stories “Sophistication” and “Hands”, Sherwood Anderson expresses his astute knowledge of loneliness and isolation in relation to the protagonists’ sexuality, while also differentiating the root of these emotions in each character’s lifestyle as he continues through life and overcomes its obstacles.
Throughout his youth, Anderson experienced life-altering events that shaped the basis for many of his stories. In his childhood, Anderson experienced desultory schooling and worked several jobs, including a newsboy, a housepainter, a stable boy, a farmhand, and a laborer in a bicycle factory, many of which are jobs of those in his writing (May, ed. 77). The central psychological event in Anderson’s life occurred in 1912, when he suffered a nervous breakdown. Subsequently he moved to Chicago where he began writing. Here, he also met Dr. Trigant Burrow of Baltimore, who operated a Freudian therapeutic camp in Lake Chateauguay, New York, attended by Anderson the summers of 1915 and 1916 (May, ed. 77). Influenced not only by life events, Anderson’s writings contain clear commonalities, allowing clear comparisons to be made.
Many critics notice the connection between recurring themes such as seclusion and sexuality to differentiate each parallel and topic shown in Anderson’s work. Both stories are from Sherwood Anderson’s book Winesburg, Ohio that is set during the latter part of the 19th century. The stories “catalog Anderson’s negative reaction to the transformation of Ohi...
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Sherwood Anderson depicts all the characters throughout his 24 short stories as a grotesque. He prefaces most of the stories with the old writer’s definition of what it means to be a grotesque. This definition frames how the book is to be interpreted throughout the different stories. Anderson paints every character as a grotesque. However, he does not paint them in the same light. What may make one person a grotesque may not make another person a grote...
In the graphic novel Fun Home, by Allison Bechdel, sexual self-discovery plays a critical role in the development of the main character, Allison Bechdel herself; furthermore, Bechdel depicts the plethora of factors that are pivotal in the shaping of who she is before, during and after her sexual self-development. Bechdel’s anguish and pain begins with all of her accounts that she encountered at home, with her respective family member – most importantly her father – at school, and the community she grew up within. Bechdel’s arduous process of her queer sexual self-development is throughout the novel as complex as her subjectivity itself. Main points highlight the difficulties behind which are all mostly focused on the dynamics between her and her father. Throughout the novel, she spotlights many accounts where she felt lost and ashamed of her coming out and having the proper courage to express this to her parents. Many events and factors contributed to this development that many seem to fear.
‘Of Mice and Men’ is based on the experiences of a migrant farmer, set in 1930’s America. The characters are also symbolized as realistic people, but influenced by the issues and circumstances based on the Wall Street crash, the American Dream and being set after WWI. I empathies for these characters for the consequences of these historical events are what to have made ‘Of Mice and Men’ a tragedy in relation to loneliness.
“Of Mice and Men” is a 1930’s novella written by the American, John Steinbeck. It is a tale not only of isolation and loneliness, violence, dreams, and the competitive urge to dominate others, but also a tale of the journey of true companionship. True companionship is emphasized by indescribable loyalty and extreme devotion between two men, George and Lennie, during the hardships of the Great Depression. The story takes place south of Soledad, California during the 1930s and is told from the perspective of a third-person omniscient narrator. The story’s genre is fiction and tragedy; a tragedy so well crafted by John Steinbeck, that the conclusion leaves the reader questioning the inherent contradictions in both loyalty and devotion. George shows extreme devotion and loyalty to Lennie, serving as Lennie’s “guardian angel” – sticking up for him and staying with him in difficult situations, which eventually leads to heartbreaking sacrifices.
The power of novels can allow readers to learn significant lessons about humanity and life experiences. Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” set in Americas great depression of the 1930’s, explores the human need for company and the impact of loneliness. This is shown through the characters experiences of power and powerlessness on a barley ranch in California. Steinbeck shows his readers the need for compassion in times of cruelty, emphasised by the desperation of the era which the novel is set.
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Novels that exhibit what the life is like for the people at ranch can help readers reflect on how they might react in comparable situation. George and Lennie who struggle to transcend the plight of inerrant farmworkers are followed by the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck. Readers are positioned to respond to themes through Steinbeck’s use of conventions that are dispirit. Themes such as Freedom and confinement, loneliness, and racism are pivotal in the novel and draw out a range of responses from the readers.
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(Sept. 1976): 35-39. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Carol T. Gaffke. Vol. 26. Detroit:
Callahan, John. "Review of Love and Trouble." Short Story Criticism Vol. 5. (Essay date 1974).
Curley’s wife is a complex, main character in John Steinbeck’s novella, “Of Mice and Men”. She is introduced as an insignificant secondary character, but evidently posses the importance of causing the end of the novella. Despite the weight of her role, her value is hindered because of the culture towards women in the 1930s. Steinbeck uses imagery, foreshadowing, and metaphors to show loneliness analyzed through a Feminist Lens.
Magill, Frank N., ed. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Revised ed. Vol. 2. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1993. 7 vols.