How The Distorted Become Grotesque In Winesburg, Ohio

Cowley I’m Speechless: Agreeing to Cowley’s Argument on how the Distorted become “Grotesque” in Winesburg, Ohio The novel Winesburg, Ohio written by Sherwood Anderson could be in the back of ones’ mind whenever stepping across, literally and figuratively, a bigoted, solitary town. This piece of art is remembered for its sheer confinement of painting a picture which describes loneliness, defeat, and absence of human contact. Anderson insists that, “ the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tries to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood” (“Book of the Grotesque”). By focusing on the obsession and distortion a truth conveyed, Anderson overlooks the deeper problem of the “grotesque”; which a critic of his writing, Malcolm Cowley hits right on the money! In other words, Cowley argues, “Their lives have been distorted not, as Andersons tells us…but rather by their inability to express themselves” (Introduction to Winesburg, Ohio

Anderson himself writes, “As for George Willard, he had many times wanted to ask about the hands…He felt that there must be a reason for their strange activity and their inclination to keep hidden away” (“Hands”) In making this comment, George has a fired up curiosity because Wing is not willing to present and talk with his hands. Because Wing is hiding them and ultimately his personality, George has this feeling that Wing’s hands are the significant factor of his distortion. This proves Cowley’s point that Wing is “grotesque” because he is distorted by holding back the one method that ultimately allows him to communicate. Cowley’s point is relevant throughout the stories, for we see other methods of speaking that fail to communicate in,