Most of the tales recount characters who have internal hungers and desires-ranging from pedophilia and God’s approval to fame, wealth, and human companionship-that they struggle to submerge in the belief that no one else harbors such secrets. Behind a cold exterior the most extraordinary events transpired in her mind. Here, for example, is the narrator’s description of Kate Swift in “The Teacher”:ĭay by day as she worked in the schoolroom or walked in the streets, grief, hope, and desire fought within her. With its focus on the psychological and biological impulses of its characters, Anderson’s book illustrates the beginning of this shift. As realism developed, it shifted into naturalism, with an emphasis on impersonal social, economic, and biological forces on individuals. Realism, which developed in France in the second half of the nineteenth century, emphasized the influence of social environment on characters. The book is also significant historically for its place in the development of American realism and naturalism. Stylistically, Anderson influenced Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. The book is significant historically for its use of common speech to portray its characters, the common people of Winesburg.

The unifying thread throughout is the coming-of-age story of George Willard, an 18-year-old news reporter who dreams of leaving the confines of his home town and making his way in the larger world as a writer. Sherwood Anderson’s masterpiece, Winesburg, Ohio, is a collection of 23 interrelated sketches-Anderson calls them “tales”-that portray life in a Midwestern town in the early years of the twentieth century.

Winesburg ohio book review