Winesburg, Ohio: Hands Analysis

"Hands" is the story of Wing Biddlebaum and how he became the shell of a man he is today. The story contains many themes, allusions, and ideas within it. Wing Biddlebaum lives on the outskirts of town with minimal contact with the people of the town. Wing's primary features are his hands which could pick berries better and faster than anyone in town. The town proceeded to make him more of a grotesque when it is said "Winesburg was proud of the hands of Wing Biddlebaum in the same spirit in which it was of Banker White's new stone house and Wesley Moyer's bay stallion, Tony Tip, that had won the two-fifteen trot at the fall races in Cleveland"(5). This shows that the town cared more about his hands than they did as a person. His hands were his only worthwhile feature and everything else took a back seat to them which made Wing into more of a grotesque as people only knew him for his hands. The only person in town who Wing would open up to was George Willard. He would excitedly use his hands to hammer his point home when normally he would try his best to conceal and constrain them from being free. Wing tries to help George by saying "You are destroying yourself' he cried. 'You have the inclination to be alone and to dream and you are afraid of dreams. You want to be like others in town here. You hear them talk and you try to imitate them"(5). This shows that Wing wants George to talk and think for himself instead of being so heavily influenced by the people around him. He wants him to dream for himself and go out and try to realize his dream. He tries to further his point by speaking of his dream "In crowds the young men came to gather about the feet of an old man who sat beneath a tree in a tiny garden and who talked to them"(5). Wing wants George to understand that he has to find his own dream and then try to achieve it. In a sense Wing achieved his dream when he was a school teacher. He was put in charge to educate and talk to his students in order to make sure they were knowledgeable about many subjects. However his dream was shattered when "In his bed at night he imagined unspeakable things and in the morning went forth to tell his dreams as facts. Strange, hideous accusations fell from his loose-hung lips"(7). The half-witted boy single handedly destroyed Wing's dream. He was beaten and eventually run out of town based on one boys own imagination. Despite the fact that Wing's dream caused him to become the grotesque he is today, he still encourages George to follow his own dreams. He feels that it is worth it no matter what the outcome of chasing his dreams is. The opportunity to go for what you truly want out of life is too good to miss out on because of the possible consequences.

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks Analysis

The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left School. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing Sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks was written in 1959 during a time where black civil rights were just starting to progress and the racial tension was palpable. The poem shows a group of young black kids who hang around in a pool hall and doing illegal activities instead of going to school. The group of boys are  unsure about where they fit in in society and so hide behind a tough facade by talking big. White people have stereotyped them into being criminals and instead of fighting to be above their stereotype they give into the lazy black stereotype. Throughout the poem many things are represented. The poem begins with seven boys who are playing pool at the Golden Shovel. The golden part of the title represents how the boys are young and should be in school. Seven is considered to be a lucky number and they can be considered a gang of sorts who constantly need luck to get by. A shovel is a tool which is used to dig in the ground. A shovel is used to dig graves which shows how the boys are playing a dangerous game and are gambling with their lives. The boys believe that part of the reason that they are cool is because they are rebellious and do not go to school. The way the poem goes promotes the idea that the boys are quite uneducated and are dropouts. They are only hurting themselves by not going to school and getting an education. Instead of becoming great they are further enforcing the stereotype of the lazy black man who has nothing to contribute. They feel that there is no point in pursuing an education in a society that refuses to accept them and actively tries to keep them down. They feel that they would not be able to do anything worthwhile with their education. Not having an education severely limits what a person can do to support themselves or their family. This causes them to lead lives of crime. The line "We lurk late" represents how they do their deeds at night after the darkness has fallen. In the dark a person can become whoever they want. The darkness has the ability to conceal and change someone's appearance and can lead to them being construed as evil and menacing. The line "We sing sin" represents how they brag about their misdeeds and crimes. They believe they are something to be proud of and in a sense a way into manhood. The last part shows how the lives of people who live like this generally turn out. Jazz is a very rebellious type of music because it defied the preconceived notions of what music actually was. The boys are free in the sense that they don't know or care what is right or wrong and will ultimately be responsible for their actions. The line "We die soon" shows how they know the outcome of the life they are leading. Their way of life is very dangerous and in the end very unsustainable. They know that the path they take will result in them leading a much shorter life but they take it in stride. They seem to be indifferent of the fact that their life path will almost definitely lead to a much shorter life span overall.

Winesburg, Ohio: Paper Pills Analysis

    Paper Pills is the story of Doctor Reefy and his late wife. The story has many themes, allusions, and ideas within it. One of the first things shown about Doctor Reefy are his hands which “looked like clusters of unpainted wooden balls as large as walnuts fastened together by steel rods” (9). This image of the wooden balls parallels the paper balls that he stuffs in his pockets and then empties after enough have been accumulated. The paper balls represent the heavy thoughts that the doctor thinks and carries around with him that weigh him down, much like his hands. The doctor has the tendency to take thoughts from the air and turn them into truths. These truths then get put down on paper and then put into his pocket. After a while the doctor must pour out these truths as they have become distorted and too dominant and risk turning him into a grotesque. The twisted apples have two meanings. They are metaphors for the twisted truths that the doctor creates. The thoughts begin whole but over time they become distorted and lose their original meaning. The apples can also be an allusion to the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, Eve ate the forbidden fruit and gained knowledge but in turn was kicked out of paradise. The twisted apples are like that in the fact that they are sweet and provide truths for the doctor but ultimately keep him from doing anything. The tall dark girl can also be considered a twisted apple in a sense. She is violated by one of her suitors but contains a sweetness, a hidden truth, that the doctor finds for himself in her. After her death he loses the truth that he found in her and is doomed to be alone in his abandoned office. This is shown when “He smoked a cob pipe and after his wife’s death sat all day in his empty office close by a window that was covered with cobwebs. He never opened the window. Once on a hot day in August he tried but found it stuck fast and after that he forgot all about it” (9). The doctor has become stuck. He is in his office and has become merely an observer who is doomed to nothingness. He is left to dream of truths that can never come to fruition. The one time he tried to do something about his position he found an obstacle in his way and could not overcome it so gave up and resigned to his life of an observer. The story also is about alienation and loneliness. The doctor has all these thoughts that way him down and he has no one to share them with. When he finally finds someone who he can open up to she quickly perishes and he is back to square one with no one with whom he can confide. Even with his only friend he cannot confide in him and throws some paper balls at him and even says “That is to confound you, you blithering old sentimentalist” (10). This shows that he attempts to share his feelings with him but cannot bring himself to do it.

"Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting The Banks Of The Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798" in Frankenstein

   In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, she uses part of Wordsworth's poem "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting The Banks Of The Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798" to show the foil of Henry and Victor and to make her work more romantic in a sense. Tintern Abbey is about Wordsworth returning to a place he visited in the past and reflecting on the differences that time has had on his thoughts and feelings. In the novel Henry is depicted as being very close to nature. He seeks no deeper meaning into what he is viewing. Victor, however, seeks more from nature such as seclusion and contemplation. He needs more from nature than what he is seeing and experiencing. In this way Victor and Henry are foils of each other. Henry can simply accept nature for what it is, while Victor needs to find an inner meaning to it in order to appreciate it. Henry does not need to see beyond the external beauty of nature, while Victor feels that unless he can get something more meaningful out of it then it is useless. Victor can also relate to Wordsworth's younger self in a sense. When Victor was younger he was able to appreciate nature for what it was instead of having to find something in it. This is much like Wordsworth because when he was younger he was able to simply appreciate nature, but as time passed and events transpired his thought process changed and instead of just appreciating nature he needed to find something in it. Both Wordsworth's future self and Victor's future self seek seclusion in nature and it is an important theme in both the novel and the poem. They hope to find in their seclusion in nature tranquility and peace. When Victor creates his "monster" he is tampering with the very fibers of nature itself. He is corrupting its beauty to attempt to create life of his own and be known. This corruption of nature's purity and power ultimately leads to his downfall as the creature he makes turns out to be his worst enemy. The novel is filled with elements of the gothic novel and the romantic movement that was occurring at the time.. It is considered one of the earliest science fiction books and is also considered to be a horror and tragedy novel. She was inspired by many romantic writers of her time due to her writing her work during the time period of the romanticism movement. Tintern Abbey is found on pages 139 and 140 in chapter 18 and is put in a relatively calm scene. She puts the poem her for a variety of reasons. It helps to put the scene in a tranquil and calm light as opposed to one that is action packed or dismal. It is also used as a final thought on the spirit of Henry and how he related to nature. He did not seek anything from nature and as such was harmonious with it.