Megan IvanoffWinesburg, Ohio            In this remarkable collection of short stories, Sherwood Anderson carries a series of crafty and moving character through the voice of George Willard who is the town reporter of Winesburg, Ohio. While the stories seem sort of unconnected by the end is a joining theme.

The lesson of the book is that unhappy folks are often trapped rather than the situations they blame (such as their town). Their experiences and life stories become facts, which can be devastated and recreated as their life events are later explained.            I personally feel that the bookshould be a required read for teens/young adults in middle school or high school. Anderson has an unique way of drawing his reader in with his mix of writing style. Anderson get his audience attention by using the plot not as his main focus, but rather the lonely lives of each selected character he’s developed in the story.

He manages to use one main character to tie the characters together throughout the story. I liked his writing style using both third and first person to give you the feeling of reading into each person’s life.             While some people have found Anderson’s story sort of negative and cynical, I think it was just the thing society needed in the time he wrote the book. When one reads Winesburg, Ohio such as myself I realize Anderson must have read up on his Sigmund Freud before he wrote the book.

He writes about sexual desires, loneliness, and the need to break free of their small-town mind set through-out the book.            While people may view this book as negative because of his ongoing themes of loneliness and suppression, I think it’s something that everyone deals with in their lives and just need to face it. Living in the United States has its downside, there is always sadness hovering all over this place.

Anderson does a fantastic job of showing what every human feels inside and demonstrating the fact that each person needs to figure out where they’re going, and what they’re meant to do to lead a happy life.            The story that I felt the most towards was “Tandy.” She was a young girl who lived with her father, Tom Hard. Her father wasn’t a great person and ignored his daughter. When someone new came to the small town of Wineburgs to quit drinking (and didn’t succeed). This stranger cried to Tom, Tandy, and another character named George, explaining that he was sad and addicted tomorrow.

He also told Tandy to be Tandy. After a while Tandy’s father called her name and she began to cry. She then demanded to be called Tandy Hard, taking her dads last name. She didn’t want to give that up. That is what life is about, finding your place.

Although the story and the entire book is dark, there were many parts that showed love.