Respect for "Respectability"

    All of the stories in Sherwood Anderson's piece Winesburg, Ohio do not shy from commentary on sex, gender discrimination, or society. The story "Respectability" is no exception. For some reason, I really got this text. I am not implying that my interpretation is golden and accurate but I was able to relate all the characters, weather, and scenery to some central theme that purveyed throughout Winesburg, Ohio. In the beginning of the story, an anonymous narrator describes a monkey. This monkey is a metaphor for the primal nature of man in society. The narrator states, "...women linger for a moment, trying to remember which one of her male acquaintances  in some faint way resembles" (Anderson 113). The image of women drawing parallels between men he know and his grotesque monkey directly relates he creature to men in society. Unbeknownst to the people, this monkey is a mirror of themselves. Looking at it, women see a parallel between men, reiterating Anderson's emphasis on man's primitively towards women In an "iron cage", the creature is trapped (Anderson 113). This is an allusion of the feelings of the main character Wash Williams. He is trapped by the stigma on men in his society. Men, in such a primal nature, succumb to the sexual temptation of the physical form of women. They are also tolerated to "possess" women in such non romantic objectifying manner. Wash Williams despises this characterization and is disused and disappointed that society marginalizes all men his way because he wants more than a relationship to satisfy society. He wants a relationship to satisfy his desire to actually have a connection with another aside from physical compatibility.  He sees George kissing Belle Carpenter enter even though he is not in love with her. He wants to warn George against his type of usurpation of love for sexual desire.

Wash Williams's view of men and women is quite ambiguous. Then narrator states, firs of all, he hated women. "Bitches," he called hem. His feeling toward men was somewhat different. He pitied them. "Does no  man  is life be managed for him by some bitch or any other?" (Anderson 114). I feel that Wash hates that women acquiesce to their degrading role in society. Women in a twentieth century society are meant to be submissive and to be at the hand of some man. They are viewed as objects to men and are sexualized by them. Also, they are vessels for prosperity and to carry he legacy of a man. Contrarily, Wash pities men for their weakness to the sexual temptation that women impose in order to fulfill their role in society as wives and mothers. Wash feels ha there is no living in this and he hates the fact that in his society, people live for society and not themselves and their true desires.

However, Wash is guilty of grotesque behavior as well. The same way that he views his peers as grotesque for abiding by the “truths” of social construct, he is a grotesque being (at last during his marriage) for insisting on the truth that women are all pure, beautiful, gentle, and honorable creatures. It is not until his wife corrupts this truth that he rejects all notions of the order of society at least in Winesburg, Ohio. He admits that he once did love stating,” ‘I loved her’ he said. ‘I don’t claim not to be a fool…’” (Anderson 118). The love he feels for his wife is indicative of his admiration for her purity and beauty. 

Sherwood Anderson: a literary....

          Sherwood Anderson is either a hypocrite or a failure or maybe both. Apologies for the direct introduction and for die-hard Sherwood fans .The Book of Grotesque introduces the idea of a grotesque being. In Anderson's portrayal through the old man, this entails someone who claims some "truth"  as his own and tries to live by it. However, outside of the text, is Anderson's role as an author not to express some universal truth?! This text is obviously of literary merit and from Perrine's definition of the characteristics of a piece of literary fiction, a text of literary merit attempts to "reveal some truth about it [life]"(Perrine 204). However, believing in some truth and even more trying to spread/express it is what makes someone a grotesque. This is so crazy to me! Maybe we cannot help but be a grotesque. Nobody is a perfect being and everyone believes in something at the least. Quite possibly this could have been Anderson's message (?). Futhermore, if you take a look at the story "The Strength of God", Reverend Hartman is portrayed as grotesque because he wishes to spread some truth of the gospel, the word of God. He hopes his that as he speaks the word of God it will be heard by many. This truth of God and the Bible is what makes him a grotesque. Even as I am writing this I am perplexed. Perhaps Anderson's book is about more than just this idea of grotesques. Maybe he is criticizing the fact that we as readers will take this idea of a grotesque as a truth and try to apply it to the text (whoa this just all came to me). And maybe, Anderson is emphasizing that people cannot help but be grotesques because even he is a grotesque himself. So i am even more confused as ever. Does this mean that the book is about nothing at all. how do we apply meaning without believing in some truth. If we find a meaning in life we have a perceived purpose to achieve to satisfy this meaning. This is our truth. Through writing this entry, i am even more intrigued by Winesburg,Ohio and even Sherwood Anderson himself. More to come on these thoughts later...

Literary Allusions: Tintern Abbey and Frankenstein

       There is no shortage of allusions to famous works in Mary Shelley's Gothic narrative Frankenstein. Specifically, I would like to hone in on one in particular. In the eighteenth chapter, Shelly includes an excerpt from romantic poet, William Wordsworth's piece "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798"  (quiet a mouthful!). The lines Shelley includes are:

 “The sounding cataract

Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep gloomy wood,

Their colours and their forms, were then to me

And appetite; a feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm,

By thought supplied, nor any interest

Unborrow’d from the eye.”

In the context of the poem,Wordsworth recounts the sensations he felt as a youth passing through Tintern Abbey. He says he is unable to contemplate his former perceptions. As this younger version of himself, nature satisfies a desire within himself for all that is available in the landscape. The totality of nature provides an overwhelming contentment and fulfillment to him in no need of improvement. Likewise, the idea of a past and present self are manifested in Victor and Henry's characters. Victor is portrayed as an abuser of the dynamism of nature. He seeks solitude in the mountains of La Valais and banks of the Rhine while Henry's feels even more alive in all of the intricacies of the earth. Henry is not a solitary individual. It is made evident that he is a social being and enjoys the company of colleagues and peers. Thus, in contrast to Victor, his relationship with nature is not one in which solitude is desired. His experience with nature is mutualistsic in that he sees the beauty in nature and feels the harmony in it. Henry is an image of an ideal Victor. He doesn't desire and seek to reach beyond the sensations he gets from viewing the beautiful landscapes unlike Victor who misconstrues the power he feels from nature as fuel to possess and control it as he did in creating the creature.Throughout the context of Frankenstein, Shelley plays with the theme of man v. nature; however, qualifying Henry's role as Victor's foil, Henry represents  the symbiosis of man and nature.Thus, just as Wordsworth reflects on his past and present feelings in Tintern Abbey, Victor and Henry are two facets of a single being, one being of a more ignorant yet pure view of the world and one clouded by ambitions and desire to not just absorb by understand.

 In Tintern Abbey, along with a majestic and fantastic view of nature, there is also ominous attitude towards nature and its power over the conscious. Wordsworth uses words like "haunted", "gloomy", and "deep" to incur the ambiguity of nature. Appreciated and absorbed for all that it is, nature affords to human beings a sense of unity and clarity of thought unparalleled. However, these same beauties when corrupted,  taken advantage of, or thought to be something more than just appreciated lend to insurmountable pain and grief. Victor objectifies nature and its power while Henry elevates it to a spiritual status. Henry states, "Oh, surely, the spirit that inhabits and guards this place has a soul more in harmony with man than those of our own country" (Shelley 139). Shelley is distinguishing between man and nature. Nature is meant to be untaouchable and incomprehensible entirely to man. Victor is ignorant to this idea which provides for his demise.