Grotesque In Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg Ohio

In the Bildungsroman novel Winesburg Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, Anderson reveals many meanings and grotesques through all of the chapters and grotesques throughout the story such as loneliness, unable to communicate, inability to love and the inability to express passion. The chapter “An Awakening” is about a girl named Belle Carpenter. She was the daughter of the bookkeeper of the first National Bank of Winesburg. Belle was in love with a man named Ed Hanby, who was a thirty year old bartender. However, Belle secretly had an affair with a boy named George Willard, who was a reporter. George and Belle were caught during a secret affair by Ed Hanby and was humiliated. Sherwood Anderson titled this story “Awakening” in order to show George Willard’s awakening and realization of the truth. George Willard also utilizes literary devices to explain the characters of Belle Carpenter and Ed Hanby, George’s aftermath of a humiliating incident, and the dismissal of his grotesque. Sherwood Anderson decides to title this story “Awakening” because after George Willard finally realizes (awakes) that he could not be with Belle. The title

Just like he did with Hanby, Anderson also utilizes imagery here in order to help the reader to obtain a visual image of Belle Carpenter’s physical appearance. We are to think of the character Belle Carpenter as dishonest for she already had a lover but continued to have secret affairs with someone else (George Willard). As stated in the text, “Belle Carpenter occasionally walked out in the evening with George Willard…” Even though she loved Ed Hanby, she spent time with George which made her dishonest to Ed. This proves that Belle Carpenter is a dishonest character who has secret affairs with someone else without her lover knowing