Winesburg Ohio By Sherwood Anderson Analysis

In Sherwood Anderson’s, Winesburg, Ohio, the author intends for the reader to sympathize more with Wing Biddlebaum, a once-proud schoolteacher, over Doctor Reefy, a social recluse. The style with which Anderson wrote each character played a significant role as to how the readers will interpret them. Readers can sympathize with the type of isolation that was forced upon Wing Biddlebaum more than the self-imposed isolation of Doctor Reefy. The accusations made against Wing which forced him out of his home-town evoked stronger emotions from the reader than those felt for Reefy. The author’s intentions when writing each character, as well as the style he wrote them in makes Wing Biddlebaum, an outcast from his old community, a more sympathetic …show more content…
The author described Doctor Reefy by talking about external appearance and action. He intended for Reefy to be a background, a very well described background, but not something the reader can truly connect with. Anderson described him as a “…tall man who had worn one suit of clothes for ten years” (Anderson 36). Although this helps us visualize Reefy, there was nothing that explained why he wore that suit for ten years. We cannot look into his heart and see the way in which he views the world, which greatly lessens the sympathy felt for him by the reader. Wing Biddlebaum, on the other hand, is written as someone who “…did not think himself as part of the town where he had lived for twenty years” (Anderson 27). Anderson wrote Wing with the intention of having the reader understand and see his thoughts. The reader understands what goes on in his head, because Wing is written as someone who we can get inside of. We can understand the feeling of seclusion felt by him, as well as the frustration he felt when he was getting run out of his home-town. This understanding makes the reader sympathize with Wing Biddlebaum more than with Doctor