The United States during the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s was a dreamer’s paradise. It was a time where it seemed as though anyone could leave the life they once led to achieve the goals they felt led to pursue. America may have attempted to maintain the facade of a nation that was wealthy, prosperous, and accepting of anyone who had a passion. However, this progressive ideology turned out to be more of an impulse than a national movement. Millions of people gambled their stable lives for lives of excitement and luxury, and relatively few succeeded in achieving their “big break.” The ones that failed were left to fend for themselves in the cruel and lonely world. They would hold onto singular truths, as Sherwood Anderson, author of Winesburg, Ohio would describe, and become corrupted by their own beliefs about the world. …show more content…
Though these people all led sad, strange lives, they all had one thing in common: they wanted to overcome loneliness. Most of them firmly believed that if they could just have one person or thing to call their own, they would find happiness. It may not have been entirely the individuals’ faults that they became grotesques, since one of the central themes of the progressive era was to prioritize materials over humanistic values. For instance, in the narrative “Mother,” Anderson wrote that George Willard’s mother, Elizabeth, resented the fact that her husband was smart and political, and often neglected her to pursue his dreams of becoming a successful politician. She prayed to God one day and asked Him, in a demanding way, not to let her son become smart and successful (Anderson 17). George was the only person that ever gave Elizabeth company, and she did not want him to achieve his dreams if it meant he had to leave her to deal with her own loneliness. She became a grotesque after years of clinging on to the belief that only George could keep her