Winesburg, Ohio Grotesque Characters

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In the book Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson examines characters grotesque qualities, and what makes these qualities grotesque. In the book, grotesque characters, are characters, who live by one or more truths. According to Anderson “It was the truths that made the people grotesque.” (P.24) Characters like Louise Bentley, Wing Biddlebaum, and Alice Hindman have the truth of the past. These characters being focused on their past are what cause them to develop grotesque qualities, and in the end, become grotesque characters. Louise Bentley is focused on changing her past, and making herself loved by her family and others. When Louise was born her father, Jesse Bentley, had wanted a son to name David, but when she was born he “did not…show more content…
When Alice Hindman was 16 she had an affair with Ned Currie, who promised to marry her after he came back from success in Cleveland. Ned slowly stopped writing to Alice and soon forgot all about her. On the other hand “For a number of years nothing could have induced her [Alice] to believe that Ned Currie would not in the end return to her.” (P. 114) Although Ned never returns, Alice believes that he will return to her and focuses her life around when Ned returns. Her obsession with Ned returning is what makes Alice become grotesque. Because she is so focused on Ned’s return, she does not realize that she is becoming grotesque by shutting people out, and creating a false, imaginative future of herself with Ned. While Alice was dreaming of her life with Ned, she often only imagined herself with Ned and saved money because “‘Ned always liked to travel about,’ she thought. ‘I’ll give him the chance.’” (P. 115) Alice believed that Ned would come back to her as the same person who left her, and would love her as the same 16-year old Alice she remembers herself as. This is the way Alice’s mind is stuck thinking. Shr does not realize that this version of her past no longer exists, and that she has become so engulfed with one state of mind that she has become
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