Winesburg Ohio By Sherwood Anderson Sparknotes
Sherwood Anderson published Winesburg, Ohio in 1919, sharing fragmented, unconnected moments of the lives of a miniscule community in his imagined town of Winesburg, Ohio. He bluntly uncovers popular American cultural values, most of which contain the quality of being ignorant to a more accepting society. Winesburg, Ohio dives into human nature, presented by Anderson as a jungle of both internal and external oppositions, conflicts, and tensions. Anderson expresses these through the clashing of natural human desires versus societal restrictions, and idealistic community values versus the reality of an old-fashioned Southern mindset. Rather than using it to symbolize his Ohio youth, these short stories, in an existentialistic manner, signifies
…show more content…
Reverend Curtis Hartman, a married man, notices himself gazing over the schoolteacher Kate Swift, resting on her bed with a book and a cigarette. From his study in the bell tower of the church, he watches her through his window with “a design showing the Christ laying his hand upon the head of a child” (Anderson 125). The Reverend, conflicted between his role as a minister and his desire of peeping “upon the bare shoulders and white throat of a woman” (Anderson 125, reasons his thirst through his choosing to perceive his sermons as a way of speaking to Kate Swift on a spiritual level. Nevertheless, the Reverend continues to struggle with repressing his obsession and shatters the window, wanting satisfaction through his gazing upon “her figure, slim and strong, like the figure of the boy in the presence of Christ on the leaded window” (Anderson 131), ironically doing so in his own religious study, Bible open and all. One night he peeps on Kate Swift, watching her pray on her bed Almost drunk-like, the Reverend rushes to George Willard’s office, and “began to talk half incoherently” (Anderson 131), preaching about the teacher, who the Reverend calls an “instrument of God, bearing the message of truth” (Anderson 131). While preaching, he holds up a fist covered in blood from his breaking of the window. Reverend Hartman’s actions thoroughly express human nature, showing that no person or force can prevent it from presenting itself through one’s
Reverend Curtis Hartman, a married man, notices himself gazing over the schoolteacher Kate Swift, resting on her bed with a book and a cigarette. From his study in the bell tower of the church, he watches her through his window with “a design showing the Christ laying his hand upon the head of a child” (Anderson 125). The Reverend, conflicted between his role as a minister and his desire of peeping “upon the bare shoulders and white throat of a woman” (Anderson 125, reasons his thirst through his choosing to perceive his sermons as a way of speaking to Kate Swift on a spiritual level. Nevertheless, the Reverend continues to struggle with repressing his obsession and shatters the window, wanting satisfaction through his gazing upon “her figure, slim and strong, like the figure of the boy in the presence of Christ on the leaded window” (Anderson 131), ironically doing so in his own religious study, Bible open and all. One night he peeps on Kate Swift, watching her pray on her bed Almost drunk-like, the Reverend rushes to George Willard’s office, and “began to talk half incoherently” (Anderson 131), preaching about the teacher, who the Reverend calls an “instrument of God, bearing the message of truth” (Anderson 131). While preaching, he holds up a fist covered in blood from his breaking of the window. Reverend Hartman’s actions thoroughly express human nature, showing that no person or force can prevent it from presenting itself through one’s